Hello Turingtest2,
Thank you for the detailed response.
"iTunes is different. With iTunes you specify a single media folder. It doesn't automatically rescan that folder, although there is an additional subfolder that it creates called Automatically Add to iTunes. Anything you put in there will be added to iTunes and moved to where iTunes thinks it belongs, typically <Media Folder>\Music\<Artist>\<Album>\## <Name>.<Ext>."
I have one media library except for the other media sub-library that itunes insists on creating and oh yeah if I want to add new songs I can't just put them in my media library or my itunes library but rather a third location where itunes proceeds to decide where it goes from there? I hope I interpreted that incorrectly because it sounds like pure foolishness in my opinion and a terrible situation for file organization/backup.
"There are three options that control the behaviour when new media is added to the library, "
Ok. I have not ripped a disc in a while but good to know. I do have "Keep Organized" turned on but I wouldn't dare enable "Copy files" based on what I have seen thus far.
"iTunes knows the locations of all the files that are currently connected to the library. If you use File > Add Folder to Library, or a drag & drop action to, for example, add the current media folder, then only new files that you have manually placed in that folder will be added. If, on the other hand, you have the Copy files... option enabled, and rescan a folder located outside of the media folder then you are telling iTunes to import a new set of duplicate copies of those files. It won't detect that you're making duplicates. Import that folder again and you make more duplicates each time."
What I am trying to tell itunes is to synchronize not copy, but I will try to understand why itunes is not familiar with the synchronization concept.
"If you want to use a shared network folder as the source of media for multiple libraries then turn off the Copy files... option so that each file can be referenced on its original path without any copies being made of it. You can also tell iTunes to use the network folder as its media folder, but you should probably turn off the Keep... option so that an edit in one library doesn't move a file and break the links for the other."
So disappointing. This is not a working solution in my opinion. The whole idea of a shared drive is the collaborative input of all users. But this really seems to be the fundamental flaw I must accept. itunes will not scan for changes, so I must account for a lifetime of handholding in the event that anything would change(which it will on a regular basis).
1. For me the big hurdle is not having positional control over my libraries. That is how I keep everything organized across multiple platforms and regulate a strict backup regimen. If I consent that itunes is allowed to put files in other locations then I must hunt them all down and manually transfer them to the master library or there will be no master library and my backups are incomplete.
2. Delightful. But like you already brought up it still requires manual addition for anything new. Duplicate cleanup is no fun either.
3. And it did. After deleting out all of the duplicates files however itunes persisted that two copies existed for all converted files. Also interesting is that iMatch also had duplicate listings from the same physical file. That is to say when removing duplicates I had to stipulate that it leave the actual files untouched or the one and only remaining file would be deleted from the local library and there would be no reference for the remaining original(other than icloud). This is different than I expected from your reading, but you did say you have not done iMatch.
4. No actually. I have verified that only a subset of my added files were copied over to itunes controlled directory when I pointed at the network library. I am fairly confident that only the files it converted from WMA ended up in that directory on the bulk add. And those are the same files that I ended up having duplicate issues with. I have a suspicion that I could push the converted files back into my original library, remove everything from itunes and re-point at the network drive to add without copying anything to the itunes media directory. But I have already wasted so much time on this transition I am not sure I have the desire to try yet... and I don't want all the duplicates in my master directory. I also don't want to trade my originals for a conversion of the original in yet another proprietary format.
5. Yes of course. Because my library is organized and on the network backups are in place for such risky occasions. You are correct about the replacement as well. For the low bitrate albums that I want to replace I simply delete the local file and download the iMatch version. I did encounter one very bizzare thing though that has me convinced I should not do this anymore. I was listening to a track on my zune while mowing the lawn and came inside to play it again from imatch cloud on my ipad... the track was different. I spent some time verifying that they should be the same. Same album, same track number, same length even(which was not common at almost 14 minutes long) but the content was different. So I am concerned that my dreams for a synchronized library through iMatch may be more like iResemble.
Thank you again for the time you put into answering my questions. I feel I have the information I need now so no further responses are requested by me at this time.
-Nick-