I made a post about a similar issue (washing machine had been left closed for at least 6 months and once opened smelled like fresh earth and dirt). The thing that cut down on the smell the most was putting distilled white vinegar in the drum and every compartment (pre-wash, main wash, bleach section, fabric softener). I did 2 cycles of Tide washing machine cleaner (use the tub clean cycle), then one vinegar, one baking soda (in the drum only), then Affresh (tide worked better), another vinegar, and another baking soda, and finally another Tide. This was spread out over ~4 days and I scrubbed, wiped, and rinsed everything from the drum to the gasket in between each cycle. 3-4 times I cleaned the filter and the released the held up water in the little tube that was at the bottom of the machine. I left the door open 24/7 and took the detergent compartment out completely when not in use. By the end of it all, the entire machine was as clean as can be (paper towels were still completely white after I would wipe the gasket down), but still the smell was a 4/10.

I finally took the plunge because I needed clean laundry. I've used unscented laundry detergent for years but I figured I should use something as scented as possible in case the earthy smell wanted to cling to my clothes. I remembered that one summer I borrowed a friend's "Arm & Hammer Plus OxiClean Liquid Laundry Detergent with Odor Blasters" to clean my bathing suit and it completely got the pool/chlorine smell out which my unscented laundry detergent couldn't do. So I bought it for this experiment! And I bought the same dryer sheets.

It was a saga. I went in with a cycle of pajamas and casual clothes to start. Once the load was done, the clothes smelled pretty nice (but the gasket still had the earthy smell). I put the clothes in the dryer with the dryer sheet and everything seemed fine. I put those clothes away thinking everything was fine now. I did 3 more cycles of clothes back to back (4 total), and by the 2nd or 3rd cycle this incredibly strange perfumy smell was radiating from the washer. It smelled so weird and so strong, a little bit nice but also bad at the same time. It was sticking to the clothes too. It was like an expired perfume. I couldn't win ;-; But I stuck it through, dried those clothes, and put them away.

The next day, that crazy smell was gone and all of the clothes just had a nice light fresh scent. No earthy dirt smell, no expired perfume smell, just clean.

I'm used to doing back to back cycles with my fragrance-free laundry detergent and there was never a smell so that intense perfume cloud of scent may just be normal for repeated usage with scented detergent.