Image files on the server but not showing in CMSB - v.3.06

Greetings,

I'm effectively duplicating a site I've built with CMSB  - both have version 3.06 (separate license keys).  My images are held outside the CMSB folder in a 'media' folder for both sites.  Directory settings for both sites are:

Upload Directory: ../media/
Upload Folder URL: /media

And under each section editor depending on website area - under the Advanced Options | Upload Directory that media is further separated into folders named 'products' , 'news', etc. The original is functioning as expected; Images are displaying in the various section editors as originally (and manually)  uploaded. 

My issue - the duplicated site is not recognizing any of the images on the server within the CMSB interface.  I have verified that both sites are set up identically, they are on the same server (different cPanel accounts), same PHP and MySQL versions, same general image settings, same section editors, same file structures for media, etc.  The duplicate has an identical CMSB setup with the exception of the main URL. I have confirmed all files have been successfully duplicated on the server and exist in the proper folder structure for both sites.  This is affecting both multi & single editor types based on my testing.

I'm looking at having to manually input a few thousand images & documents if I can't get the newest site to recognize that they are already there - and I'd really like to avoid doing that :)

I've mirrored out sites using CMSB previously and haven't had this issue - I'm wondering if I'm missing something else that I need to do with this latest version. Or perhaps I've just overlooked something in general.  I have downloaded the latest admin_functions.php file and applied it to both 3.06 sites. 

In the meantime, I'm going to wipe all the tables of the duplicate and attempt to restore backups from the functioning site to the empty duplicate.  I'll post again if that solves my issue.

Any assistance & insight would be greatly appreciated - thanks!