diff --git a/xpra/client/gtk3/tray_menu.py b/xpra/client/gtk3/tray_menu.py
index 7f34815291..c97b32eef7 100644
--- a/xpra/client/gtk3/tray_menu.py
+++ b/xpra/client/gtk3/tray_menu.py
@@ -82,7 +82,7 @@
 SERVER_NOT_SUPPORTED = "Not supported by the server"
 
 # 'auto' is recorded as '' unfortunately:
-GENERIC_ENCODINGS = ("", "stream", "grayscale")
+GENERIC_ENCODINGS = ("auto", "stream", "grayscale")
 
 
 class GTKTrayMenu(MenuHelper):
diff --git a/xpra/client/mixins/encodings.py b/xpra/client/mixins/encodings.py
index 707dbcb119..75503fb7df 100644
--- a/xpra/client/mixins/encodings.py
+++ b/xpra/client/mixins/encodings.py
@@ -299,7 +299,7 @@ def get_core_encodings(self) -> list[str]:
     def set_encoding(self, encoding: str) -> None:
         log("set_encoding(%s)", encoding)
         if encoding == "auto":
-            self.encoding = ""
+            self.encoding = "auto"
         else:
             encodings = self.get_encodings()
             if encoding not in encodings: