Copying IMAP mail to to your Macintosh for back-up purposes?

Copying your mail to local disk is easy. First you create a local mailbox to hold your archival mail; then you can copy mail from the server to that location. To do this:

1. Start Apple Mail
   
2. From the menu select Mailbox > New Mailbox...
   Result: The "New Mailbox" window appears.
   
3. For Location select "On My Mac". For Name enter a name for your new local mailbox. Click OK.
   
   Result: Your new mailbox appears in the mailbox listing.
   
4. Open the mailbox on the server that contains the message or messages you'd like to copy to your local machine. Select the messages you wish to copy. To select all the messages in a mailbox, use cmd-a.
   
   Result: The messages to be copied are highlighted.
   
5. ctrl-click on the highlighted messages to see a menu of options. Select "Move To", then choose the folder you created in step 3.
   
   Result: The messages you selected are copied to the folder on your local machine. The original is still on the mail server and counts towards your email quota.
   
6. Repeat the steps as needed to copy mail from multiple mailboxes on the server to your local machine.