I made a k-9 update to 5.806 some time ago (Huawei P9 Lite with Android 7).
Now I noticed that I can no longer set individual notification sounds, I have to choose from a selection of sounds. ;(
Is that correct or have I overseen something?
If the way I explained it here for example doesn’t work for you then your Android version is probably too old to do that. Google keeps changing permissions + stuff, so not the fault of K-9.
My fault, I didn’t express myself precisely enough: I get notifications, even acoustic ones, but I can no longer select the sound file as you did in picture 5/5. Before the update of K-9, this was still possible.
Unfortunately, there are no more Adroid updates for this phone and I refuse to throw away a working phone just because the manufacturer doesn’t care about it anymore. >:(
Like I said - Google keeps changing rules + permissions and in order to be allowed on the Playstore K-9 has to adapt and change how it handles options like the sound selection.
There is no way for K-9 to change how the Android system handles the notification selection - maybe look into flashing a custom rom that updates your device to Android 9 or 10 instead 
Have you tried adding a file to the notifications folder? See e.g. How to add custom ringtones and sounds to your Android phone | Android Central
Firstly, I use the FOSS version of K-9 (but I don’t know how it differs from the Google Playstore version) and secondly, it still worked after my last Android update on 17.9.2020. It was only after the last update of K-9 on 26.9.2021 that the “problem” started. I therefore cannot imagine that it is due to changes in Google’s specifications.
The *.mp3 files are in Notifications and Ringtones. Even after restarting the phone, they are not offered to me. However, both directories do not contain the standard sounds that are displayed. I think they are in flash - and I don’t root for that.
It’s a pity that you can no longer use individual sounds with K-9. Threema, for example, offers individual sounds (as stored in Notifications) in addition to the standard sounds with the current version 4.61.
Thank you, I appreciate both your helpfulness. 
K-9 Mail never included support for custom notification sounds itself. The app used a system component that would display the available notification sounds for the user to pick one.
K-9 Mail 5.800+ now uses a slightly different component to display the list of notification sounds. But the list still comes from the system.
It looks like on Android 7 the custom notification sounds are only included in the list if the app has the permission to access external storage. This is very unfortunate, because K-9 Mail no longer requests this permission. And it shouldn’t be necessary, because the app never needs to access the notification sound itself. The app only passes the opaque identifier it gets from the notification sound picker component to the notification system. Playing notification sounds is something that is handled by the system.
I created an entry for this in our issue tracker: Support custom notification sound on Android 7 and older · Issue #5806 · k9mail/k-9 · GitHub
Given that the amount of users this affects is getting smaller (because Android 8 has changed the way notifications are configured completely), this is not a high priority issue for me. Code contributions are very welcome, though.
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Thank you for your patient explanation. 
As I said, it’s a pity that it no longer works. I don’t like the system sounds.
Unfortunately, I’m not a developer, so I can’t contribute anything relevant.
The root of the problem is - once again - that manufacturers are allowed to stop OS updates after a few years. I would also prefer to use my phone with an up-to-date Android. But I don’t buy a new phone every two years just because of Android. 
I know exactly what you mean about not throwing away a perfectly good phone. I use K-9 on my Chromebook 3 rather than my Android smartphone, but my phone is an older model, and apparently the OS will not be updated further. That means a new app for my bank will not work. Bummer. But I’m not going to throw away a phone I have customized and spend all kind of money for a new phone with all the latest bells, whistles, and gongs, many of which I might never use.
You can often prolong the usefulness of your phone by installing a custom ROM. Visit https://upcycling-android.org/ as a starting point.
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It feels good not to be alone. Thanks.
Thanks for the link, I didn’t know that yet. But I’ve been watching this topic for a while and my next phone will focus on the length of manufacturer support, repairability and modular design. Maybe it will be a https://www.shiftphones.com/.
Unfortunately, CalyxOS nor Replicant or LineageOS will support my current phones, the Huawei P9 Lite and the Meizu MX4 (Ubuntu Edition).