diff --git a/src/paperless/settings/__init__.py b/src/paperless/settings/__init__.py
index 772c51801..024b6e5fe 100644
--- a/src/paperless/settings/__init__.py
+++ b/src/paperless/settings/__init__.py
@@ -889,6 +889,10 @@ OCR_LANGUAGE = os.getenv("PAPERLESS_OCR_LANGUAGE", "eng")
 # OCRmyPDF --output-type options are available.
 OCR_OUTPUT_TYPE = os.getenv("PAPERLESS_OCR_OUTPUT_TYPE", "pdfa")
 
+_ocr_mode_raw = os.environ.get("PAPERLESS_OCR_MODE", "")
+if _ocr_mode_raw in ("skip", "skip_noarchive"):
+    os.environ["PAPERLESS_OCR_MODE"] = "auto"
+
 OCR_MODE = get_choice_from_env(
     "PAPERLESS_OCR_MODE",
     {"auto", "force", "redo", "off"},