When Apple released iTunes 12.2, they changed the way you view your purchased content that is in the cloud. As I wrote yesterday, the latest update displays this purchased content by default, and, in my case, there was a bug with iTunes which did not allow me to turn it off, until I signed out of the iTunes Store and signed back in again a few times.
In addition, other people I spoke with saw the same issue as I did, but some didn’t see any cloud purchases, and didn’t get the menu items that I discuss below. This whole thing seems a bit buggy.
But here’s the way it should work. If you’re signed into the iTunes Store, and not using iCloud Music Library, you’ll have the option to display your past purchases in your iTunes library, with cloud icons next to them so you can download those that are not physically in your library. You can do this for three of your media libraries: Music, Movies, and TV Shows.
When you’re in each of these libraries, you’ll have two menu items in the View menu: All Music, or Only Music Available Offline. If you wish to see your purchases that are in the cloud, choose All Music. If you only want to see what’s in your library, choose Only Music Available Offline.
Note that you only see these options if you are not viewing your content in Playlists view. In other words, you need to select My Music, My Movies or Unwatched, or My TV Shows or Unwatched. If you are in playlists view for any of those libraries, then the purchased content options only display in the View menu if you select the library itself – Music, Movies, or TV Shows – at the top of the sidebar.
This is all a bit of a surprise. The previous option, available through iTunes 12.1, but removed in iTunes 12, was available in the Store preferences. There was an option for Show iTunes in the Cloud Purchases. I don’t know why Apple moved this to the View menu, and made it contextual (only displaying when you’ve selected certain items). It is about viewing items, but it would make more sense in the Store menu, if it is to be banished from the preferences.