ESPHome firmware version showing as Unavailable unless I install firmware from web site

I flashed 2 MD5-stack atom lite devices as BlueTooth Proxies using the Ready-Made Projects — ESPHome website and added them to Home Assistant. They worked and they also showed the firmware as “up to date”.

I then found I could set an encryption key by compiling and uploading the firmware myself using the esphome python tool which I installed on my Mac using home-brew. That worked fine, but after doing so and re-connecting the devices to Home Assistant, they no longer show the firmware as “up to date” and instead show “unavailable”.

The only post I found about this topic was Firmware version unavailable which said to check the “Home Assistant Dashboard Integration” box in the ESPHome plugin. I’m running HomeAssist in docker so I’m not using the plugin.

I can see the firmware under Device Info which is listed as “Firmware: 2024.10.0 (Oct 23 2024, 17:25:12)”, but under Configuration it shows “unavailable”.

Is there any way to upload your own firmware and still have the ESPHome card show it’s up to date?

I flashed the website BlueTooth Proxy firmware again (which was a pain because Home Assistant originally wanted an encryption key which wasn’t set) as that firmware is “Firmware: 24.9.1 (ESPHome 2024.7.3)” which shows “up to date”.

I’m not sure why an old firmware shows “up to date” and a newer one shows “unavailable”.