diff --git a/src/components/colorscale/defaults.js b/src/components/colorscale/defaults.js
index 2620ff873f9..569a43793e1 100644
--- a/src/components/colorscale/defaults.js
+++ b/src/components/colorscale/defaults.js
@@ -115,6 +115,9 @@ module.exports = function colorScaleDefaults(parentContIn, parentContOut, layout
         if(prefix && inTrace) showScaleDflt = hasColorbar(containerIn);
 
         var showScale = coerce(prefix + 'showscale', showScaleDflt);
-        if(showScale) colorbarDefaults(containerIn, containerOut, layout);
+        if(showScale) {
+            if(prefix && template) containerOut._template = template;
+            colorbarDefaults(containerIn, containerOut, layout);
+        }
     }
 };
diff --git a/test/image/baselines/marker_colorscale_template.png b/test/image/baselines/marker_colorscale_template.png
index a22df3b544a..7bf77870b71 100644
Binary files a/test/image/baselines/marker_colorscale_template.png and b/test/image/baselines/marker_colorscale_template.png differ