Certain apps no longer allow a change to notification sound unless I choose a downloaded sound file.

I noticed a couple of weeks ago that my WhatsApp notification sound was different from the system sound (Pumice) that I have always used. I have tried everything including changing it from Systems > Apps > WhatsApp > Notification and from within the app itself. I thought it was a problem with WhatsApp but now noticing that other apps are affected. For example in WhatsApp: It has defaulted to my device ringtone (a music file that I downloaded) and now will only allow a selection from downloaded music. I have been a HTC user for many years and this seems glitchy to me. I hope there is a solution so I don't have to do a system reset. (I hope I am articulating this in a way that makes sense.) Thank you for any suggestions.

Lori in Alaska

Welcome to Android Central! Try going to Settings>Apps​, then tap Menu>Reset All App Preferences. Now when you go to select a notification tone, does it give you a choice for how to pick a tone?

Thank you. Yes, I have used Reset All App Preferences - and the app does show me system sounds and a few that I have downloaded, as choices. However, when I choose a system sound, it does now allow the selection and instead, remains attached to a downloaded file. I have also tried to use the Settings > App > (WhatsApp for example) > Notifications and whether I go from Setting or from within the app itself, it stays stuck on a downloaded file. The choices I see include downloaded files and also system sounds, however, I can only choose a downloaded file.

Which HTC phone do you have? Have you already tried wiping the cache partition? Here are the steps for the HTC 10, which are probably the same for most recent HTC phones: https://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-25804

Thanks for your assistance on this! I successfully wiped the cache partition (good tip I had no idea about) but it did not solve this issue.

From the App: In Notification Sounds, it is set to the phone's default ringtone. If the phone's ringtone is a downloaded file, I can also select 'none' or any other downloaded file that is saved to Sounds; I can see all sounds and they all look available, but it will only allow "None" or a downloaded sound to stick. This is for any notification setting in the App (SMS, MMS, Call). If the phone's ringtone is a system sound, the app Notification will set to a seemingly arbitrary system sound (in this case Luminol) and will only allow 'None' as an alternative, even though I can see and select any other system or downloaded sound option.
From Settings > Apps > (WhatsApp) > Notification: If the device ringtone is a downloaded music file, this selection will default to that sound, even though it lets me choose 'none', any other downloaded file, or any system file. As soon as I'm out of the menu, it defaults back to the device ringtone.

It almost looks to me like somewhere along the way, my Apps are pointing to a hidden closet where only downloaded sounds are located, but it can see device sounds from there.

Let's back up for a second -- after you Reset All App Preferences and then select a tone, did it give you a choice of apps to use for selecting a tone? This can happen sometimes if you have a 3rd party file manager installed, and if you're using that app instead of the system app to choose tones, it might not be selecting the tone correctly.

Here's another longshot: from time to time, updates to Android System Webview (or Chrome, if the phone is Nougat or above) have caused problems in the past, seemingly more often with HTC phones. If your phone is Nougat or above, try uninstalling all updates to Chrome -- this can only be done if Chrome was preinstalled, which is the case for most phones these days. If the phone is Marshmallow or below, select Android System Webview in Settings>Apps and Uninstall Updates there.

Yep - it did give a choice between tone files and I had chosen system tones. In fact, in an effort to get to the bottom of this, I deleted the third party app altogether. No change. I did try your Chrome suggestion and that didn't help either. Several of my apps are affected by this and it is in a word, weird. I feel like I'm going to have to do a factory reset (ugh) to shake it loose.

Hello. I have the same problem and I tried to do a factory reset but I have the same problem after do it :(.

Could you fix it? How?

Bests.

Fixed it with a factory reset and conservative use of third party notification apps, after reset.