No easy way to capture my music library from the cloud?

I would sincerely like to say your reply was helpful. Initially, it was. I found the "purchased" link, clicked it and then "download all". Downloads started, except for one song that it said could not be downloaded. I forget the instructions on what it said to do about that one, but I let the pc run as it appeared to continue downloading. I left it to run, came back later and found an error window message, saying that Itunes had "stopped working... Windows will close this program and notify you if a solution is available". HUH? "IF" a program is available?? [And apparently Apple doesn't have such a program, as I have not be notified.] The screen was frozen but the mouse worked, only the "Close Program" button worked. Closed it, re-started. Opened Itunes, which opened to the EULA (??), which I accepted, then clicked My Music which showed one screen of apparently downloaded songs. But only the one screen which contained only a portion of my library. "Page down" did not work, could not scroll to any more pages. I clicked Itunes Store/purchased which opened a mostly blank page with the gray text message, "You do not have any purchased music"...! The page did not change when I clicked from "All" to "Not In My Library".

I clicked "Preferences" and it does show my library name, "Laugesen Library". Again clicked My Music and again just the one page, apparently the same songs.

Note: At one point, after I re-opened the stopped program and the screen showed my library in the Cloud, and none of the songs downloaded, I tested and did download one song. That song was included subsequently in the one-page list.

I then opened your advice page, "Empty/corrupt iTunes library after upgrade/crash". I looked for a "Previous Itunes Library" folder. Closest was "Itunes Library". a 23.3kb file (with the red Itunes logo) that when opened went to the Itunes page stating I did not have any purchased music. The only other Itunes library file was"Itunes Music Library", an XML file, which when opened lists dates, letters, etc.

Judging from the lack of any songs in the Library file, I take it your advice page won't help me in this situation.

In the same directory as those 2 folders was another folder, "Itunes Media", which included a folder "Downloads" which I found contained 4 random songs I had purchased, and a folder "Music" that looked to contain the names of the artists of the songs shown on that one-page list previously. Another folder, "Podcasts" surprisingly seemed complete, of about 100 podcasts.

All other Itunes files and folders, including the application and "Itunes Helper" files, were listed in the "Itunes" folder in C/programs, except for a file "Mozilla plug-ins" (I use Firefox browser) and "ITdetector.ocx", contained in another "Itunes" folder, both under C/Program Files (x86).

This leaves me more than a bit frustrated and disappointed with Apple.

The nearest Apple store is some 180 miles from my location. I shouldn't have to pay Apple for them to fix their faulty software, IMHO, assuming I could contact them directly on line or by telephone.

Do you have any further advice?

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Followed your instructions, and glad to report some success. Not entirely, however... I started by downloading 3 or 4 songs at a time, clicking in quick succession. Then I increased to 7, then 10. However, maybe 10 is the limit, or the size of the files, because when I tried 11, I got the same error as before, "Itunes has stopped working...."

I am not a techie or engineer, but I cannot fathom how Apple's designers produced such irritatingly cumbersome, malfunctioning software. (I hope they monitor this forum!)

Soldiering on, I re-started Itunes, My Music listed my tunes, several of which evidently had been successfully downloaded in the earlier batches. I stayed on that page and simply resumed the same download procedure, clicking the cloud icons (fewer than 10, however).

At this rate, I may actually get my music back in my device after only what, six or seven more "batches". I will let you know.

Latest: Slowly, batch by batch, my songs have now loaded to My Music library--I think. That is, "purchased" now shows "250 items". Curiously, "Not in My Library" shows "You do not have any purchased music". Songs/albums are only listed under "All".

In comparison, my Itunes on my Ipad does list songs in both categories, but not the same exact list. (For that matter, the library shows 392 songs. Some of the variance is accounted for by a few non-Itunes purchased tunes in the Ipad library, but not all.)

You may be able to explain why my libary now contains a U2 album that I did NOT purchase? I dimly recall reading something a while ago that Bono donated some music, perhaps this ""Songs of Innocence" album, to everyone, regardless of whether or not it was requested?

Lastly, I find it odd and annoying that the Ipad Itunes library is not sorted alphabetically, but is random, and I see no way to properly sort the files.

And of course, it is further annoying that although I managed after a slow process to recover my library (I think), there was no way to recover my playlists.

I am supposing I might try to sync my Ipad with my pc? And then manually add to the playlists whatever additional songs as desired. hop

Thanks for your help. Again, I hope that the Apple in-house techs are reading this!