While I realize that plants perform differently depending on their environment, if you have an autumn olive without a very heavy, and to most, very pleasant fragrance you don't have an autumn olive plant or you don't have a nose that functions normally or one of us lives in a separate universe. I would bet it's the first.
I used to grow a couple Hidden Springs cultivars, and while the fruit was much larger on both than the native seedlings around here, I found it useless for juice or preserves because of the high level of alum. I keep a few plants on the forest edge to serve my various pollinators who just love the extremely fragrant flowers. It's a very enjoyable fragrance to me as well.
[NAFEX] autumn olive not fragrant?,
Alan Haigh, 09/06/2008