iTunes, NAS, MBP and Searching...

OK, I have done the search and it returned over 20 pages of posts. I have gone through and tried some of the methods, but none are working well enough for me to feel comfortable yet.

I have my iTunes Library on my MBP. It works and I have no issues with syncing and adding to the library.

I bought a new 4TB WD My Book Live that is attached to my APEx via Ethernet cable. It is set up with the following shares: Documents, Photos, Video, Installs, iTunes. I can connect and move data from my MBP to and from the NAS. I can even connect via FTP to exchange files from work to home and vise-versa.

I want to move the iTunes directory from my MBP to the iTunes share on the NAS. My library file has a few hundred smart playlists set up for all the music and audio books I have. Everything is working normally as long as it stays on the MBP.

I have done the following:
1. Connected to the share point: \\<NAS>\iTunes
2. Changed the Directory in settings where the Library is looking to the share point.
3. I have copied my entire iTunes directory to the share point.
4. I have set iTunes to manage my music and to copy to the library. It is set up that way anyway and works Locally.
4. After closing down iTunes and opening it back up, all the settings have changed back to the local drive.
5. When I tested adding a new item (Movie or CD), the data when to the local repository, not the shared location that is set in the Advanced Settings.
6. I have tested moving my local iTunes repository to a different folder, and it still creates the dir structure of what was there before.

I have checked and verified permissions as well as made sure I am running the most up to date version of iTunes. There has to be a simple step I am leaving out. When it was on my Windows machine, everything was stored on a USB drive and worked flawlessly.

I am running out of room on my drive and have a large project coming up that will require much more local room on my internal HDD. I need to get this stuff off my drive and on to the NAS. I have 2TB left, so it isn't a space issue there.

Once you changed the iTunes preferences to point to the external drive did you consolidate your library?

This maybe teaching granny to suck eggs but the article below is very helpful and comprehensive (could be you've done this already but here goes)
http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/moving-your-itunes-library-to-a-new-hard-drive/

yes. I did the consolidate part, waited the hour or so it took to complete. The share point info (space/files) matched the iTunes directory on my MBP. That is when I shut down iTunes and restarted it and tried adding in another CD to test it out.

It put the music on the MBP and not the share point. And yes, I had it set to move files to library.

That is what makes it frustrating - I moved it to my MBP from Windows but now I cant get it off my MBP.

I know it's a pretty lengthy read but is there anything in that article that you haven't tried?

I only ask because, on the face of it, what you've done 'should' work

Actually, that is the article I was reading and following Saturday when I started this mess. And like I said, everything transferred over to the share, but once I closed iTunes and reopened it, it reverted to using the MBP, not the share.

Yes, everything "should" have worked.