Why does iTunes spend ages processing album artwork for no apparent reason?

I have a 65,000+ files on assorted drives. I tag in another ap, so I don't use iTunes to get artwork. However, everytime I add files to my playlist it insists on "processing album artwork" for every file, even if there isn't any, or if the files are being re-added after being moved to a different drive. What is iTunes up to, & is there any way of disabling it?
On a related note, it would be really useful if iTunes could be set to search certain folders for altered, moved or deleted files & update the library automatically. Any chance this could be introduced in a future version?

No, it isn't! Maybe I should check it, then restart iTunes, uncheck it again & restart iTunes again. Might be worth a try.

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