Just gone into trash and lots of old emails have disappeared! Any idea why?
Do you have the “Empty trash on exit” option selected? menu/tools/options/general/general.
No, and emails from April onwards are still there
What service provider are you using (Outlook, Hotmail, etc.) and how is it configured (POP3, IMAP, Exchange)?
Virginmedia and IMAP
Can you see the deleted items in webmail?
Ah, no, I guess it’s a virginmedia problem, then??
That would be my guess. They may have some rules on how long mail in trash is kept. Unless you have some rule set up in eM Client (which I doubt) it really can’t be the client deleting the messages.
No, I’d never set up anything to delete in eM Client - I’m an archivist, I keep everything! I’l check out virginmedia and see why they deleted 7 months of emails in one go! Fortunately, I’ve got a good external backup. Thanks for your help 
Great. You may want to consider periodically copying deleted items to local folders so they can’t be deleted by email provider.
Not just considered - already done, and will now be done EVERY day!