How can I get iTunes to automatically refresh the media library?

Most of the media players that have a "media library" functionality usually self-refresh the library when files are added or removed. As I share the media library with other media players (I use iTunes only to copy music on the iPod), I would like iTunes to automatically refresh when I add, remove, or rearrange audio tracks in the file system. How can I get iTunes to do this?

What you call a “design” flaw, is not such thing. It’s a design decision made by the iTunes team. Although iTunes lets you “manually manage your library”, it’s never intended to let you move things around in the filesystem, add, remove or modify files.

The premise for iTunes happiness is that you always add the items to the library and modify things from within iTunes. You have the choice to let iTunes “organize” the library (which will copy the media to the iTunes library folder and organize it there as he wants) or you can leave it wherever you originally had it, but iTunes doesn’t “read” or “monitor" the filesystem for changes. It knows things changed when the library.xml is changed, and the only application that does that is iTunes itself.

Is this the best way?

Yes and no, it has advantages, but a lot of people miss the “Winamp-like” ease of use and it’s understandable. On the other hand, it simplifies a lot of things for a lot of people. It has decently worked for quite a few years now.

But that’s the topic for another discussion. :)

In addition to Martin's answer, I would point out that a major reason for this design decision is speed. If iTunes had to scan the filesystem for changes every time it ran, the program could potentially slow to a crawl.

There are a number of tricks and third party utilities you can use to get around this behavior. The wiki for MusicBrainz Picard has some quick tips on refreshing metadata info, like using the "Get Info" menu item to refresh individual track information. They also detail a small AppleScript that will refresh multiple tracks at once.

As for adding and removing files, the best way to get around this is to not try to get around it in the first place. Use the "Add to Library" and "Delete" functions in iTunes itself. However, if you do decide to remove files without using the iTunes "Delete" function, you can use a script such as "Super Remove Dead Tracks" from Doug's Apple Scripts For iTunes.

Itunes Folder Watch is the external app you require for this functionality http://albumbrowser.klarita.net/itfw.html

My answer is use a different music manager. That is what I have done. iTunes use to pickup on new music I added but now you have to put it the "watch folder" and of course then it moves it from there into the library. That wont work when I use Google Music Manager and have my cloud music sync to my hard drive. So iTunes is out for me.