How can I get iTunes on my new MacBook to acknowledge an existing Podcasts directory? I'm setting up my new MacBook Pro and iTunes doesn't acknowledge an existing Podcasts directory that I have on a networked drive.  This directory was created by iTunes running on my Windows laptop.  (I made sure to change the iTunes Media Folder location in Preferences, and Podcasts is an existing subfolder.)

The thing that is extra-confusing for me is that, when iTunes downloaded the latest episode of a podcast (just now), it put it into that same Podcasts folder, so I'm confident that I've set up the media location properly.

How can I say to iTunes, "no, you don't need to download any of those old podcasts, they're right there"?
This can happen with any file type, not just Podcasts, and I've suffered from this a few times when I move my iTunes library about, especially with TV Shows.

The only solution I found was to move the episodes out of the iTunes Media folder, then use the Add to Library in iTunes to add them back in. This forces them to be added to the .itl even if there's already a malformed entry for that file.