It just adds the names, not the info.
You're absolutely right—I'd forgotten this is what it does. Not only is my memory bad, but these additions—as you point out—get lost in a sea of people with no means of identifying them. I've dealt with this in the pass by doing a "mass update." Yes, it takes a long time—it needs to be run overnight, perhaps several nights. There must be a better way...
The issue is somewhat broader than new people not being updated. Even if they were, the information would eventually get "stale." I think what we actually need is a date stamp for the date of last update, and the means to update all records previously updated before a specified date. An update interval (n days) could be specified in
Preferences, and an "Update records older than n days" added to the
Tools-Import menu.
It seems logical that the same functionality be provided for movies as well, but movie information doesn't become "stale" in the same way. The amount and quality of information at a source will likely increase for a time after a movie's release, then remain static. Filters and
Advanced Search provide the tools we need to periodically select movies to include in a "mass update" (e.g., 2008 releases added more than one month ago).
Having no means to identify people records that have not been updated reminds me of another missing feature—
Advanced Search for people.
Also have an option NOT to add a movie to the movie list when you click on a movie in the people view.
What's happening here is the movie record is being made "visible" so you can view it—so it also appears in the list (which is set to display "visible" items). I've gotten used to deleting after viewing (which just makes it "invisible" again). But I agree, there has to be a better way. I suppose it requires an intermediate third state where the record is made temporarily visible because it's link has been selected. It would then need the option (perhaps a check box at the top of the pane) to "make this movie visible," in case the intention is to add the movie, rather than just view it.
I have over 21000 people in the list, just updating them all is NOT an option.
A possible interim solution... Search genre for "IS NULL." That will isolate the records that need updating, although it will include records which have been updated but have no genre. That won't matter, as long as the number of records is reduced to a manageable level. For example, I'm doing my own update now on 650 out of 11,000 records.