This seems like a really silly kludge for such a sophisticated program -- i.e. I now have cover art in two different locations. I'm having a difficult time accepting that this is the way MC11 is designed to work. What happens with MC12 comes out -- will I then have cover art located in THREE different locations, some under the "Media Center" folder, some under the "Media Center 11" folder, and the newest art under the "Media Center 12" folder?
I agree and hope the installer will be developed further. However, you don't have to use many folders. MC11 uses the cover art folder you have defined. For now, you can keep your cover art in e.g. Media Center\Data\Cover Art\ and use that. It is just a folder name.
In general I have never used default folder names. I like to have as short filename paths as possible:
I have all installed software in a root folder named C:\Soft\
My main media library is in C:\MClib\
I have MC11 in C:\Soft\MC\
My old global cover art folder is currently located in X:\_img
My music files are in X:\[Artist]\[Album]
My video files are in Y:\[Album]
etc...
I have asked for the editable Image File field several times. It would be nice if all image file links could be changed e.g. from "D:\Music\Cover Art" to "E:\Music\Cover Art" just by using the Find and Replace tool.
Because that is not possible I have imported the cover art files so I can move them together with other files using MC tools. Because the image files are in the album folders the links don't contain paths and they are always correct.
It seems like there just has to be some relatively easy way to end up with all cover art in the NEW default location -- i.e. to shift it to the default MC11 folder/s (wherever that may be) without "removing" it and "re-finding" it. It's one thing to not have this happen automatically, but to have to remove and re-find it seems like a kludge. Is it possible that by letting the MC11 installer uninstall MC10 rather than unistalling MC10 manaully, it wil do this automatically during the installation? Is there perhaps something I'm misunderstanding here?
AFAIK there is no such a mechanism. The cover art location for existing files is defined in the Image File field. The folder location in the MC options is completely separate of that field and the whole media library.
The only way to edit the old links is to export the library in XML format, edit the Image File fields with some other software and import the XML file to a new empty library. However, the import system is a bit buggy. I have reported about the problems a few months ago.
Taking a different scenario, let's say I want to "extract" the cover art from some mp3's that have their art saved in the tags in order to use it in some other way or edit it. Isn't there some way of doing this?
I don't know. Have you tried: Right-click > Image > Copy to Clipboard? That works for external images.
Given that I currently have my cover art stored in the tags, is the cover art in my MC10 "cover art" folder even used anymore, or is it just extraneous at this point, and I can put it wherever I want?
As I said earlier, I don't think it is used.
What would happen if a file wanted to see the cover art in a certain location and it was suddenely not there anymore? How would I be able to tell the difference between a file that had no cover art, and a file that didn't see it's cover art where it expected it?
Did you check the Image File field? Internal cover art is marked as "Inside File". There is no cover art link in that case. MC does not look for the file elsewhere unless the "Quick Find in File / Cover Art Directory" tool is used. External cover art would of course be missing.
Actually, if your cover art images are marked as "Inside File" you don't have a problem. Your MC10 Media Library does not contain any other information about your image files. That information does not magically change when you restore an MC10 library backup in MC11 or point a new MC11 library to an MC10 library location.