diff --git a/Core/Registry/InstalledModule.cs b/Core/Registry/InstalledModule.cs
index 23c1170052..732cc7e9f0 100644
--- a/Core/Registry/InstalledModule.cs
+++ b/Core/Registry/InstalledModule.cs
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 using System;
+using System.ComponentModel;
 using System.Collections.Generic;
 using System.IO;
 using System.Security.Cryptography;
@@ -83,7 +84,9 @@ public class InstalledModule
 
         [JsonProperty] private CkanModule source_module;
 
-        [JsonProperty] private bool auto_installed;
+        [JsonProperty(DefaultValueHandling = DefaultValueHandling.IgnoreAndPopulate)]
+        [DefaultValue(false)]
+        private bool auto_installed;
 
         // TODO: Our InstalledModuleFile already knows its path, so this could just
         // be a list. However we've left it as a dictionary for now to maintain