diff --git a/qa/suites/rados/cephadm/upgrade/2-repo_digest/repo_digest.yaml b/qa/suites/rados/cephadm/upgrade/2-repo_digest/repo_digest.yaml
index 87e9e441e93b7f..2e6bbfd921a7f7 100644
--- a/qa/suites/rados/cephadm/upgrade/2-repo_digest/repo_digest.yaml
+++ b/qa/suites/rados/cephadm/upgrade/2-repo_digest/repo_digest.yaml
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
 tasks:
 - cephadm.shell:
     mon.a:
-      - ceph config set mgr mgr/cephadm/use_repo_digest true --force
+      - ceph config set mgr mgr/cephadm/use_repo_digest false --force
diff --git a/src/pybind/mgr/cephadm/module.py b/src/pybind/mgr/cephadm/module.py
index a6ffdb4a037be3..8ffc4ec95adeab 100644
--- a/src/pybind/mgr/cephadm/module.py
+++ b/src/pybind/mgr/cephadm/module.py
@@ -311,7 +311,7 @@ class CephadmOrchestrator(orchestrator.Orchestrator, MgrModule,
         Option(
             'use_repo_digest',
             type='bool',
-            default=False,
+            default=True,
             desc='Automatically convert image tags to image digest. Make sure all daemons use the same image',
         ),
     ]
@@ -357,7 +357,7 @@ def __init__(self, *args: Any, **kwargs: Any):
             self.registry_url: Optional[str] = None
             self.registry_username: Optional[str] = None
             self.registry_password: Optional[str] = None
-            self.use_repo_digest = False
+            self.use_repo_digest = True
 
         self._cons: Dict[str, Tuple[remoto.backends.BaseConnection,
                                     remoto.backends.LegacyModuleExecute]] = {}
diff --git a/src/pybind/mgr/cephadm/tests/test_cephadm.py b/src/pybind/mgr/cephadm/tests/test_cephadm.py
index 840e82d0167e51..74008143bab012 100644
--- a/src/pybind/mgr/cephadm/tests/test_cephadm.py
+++ b/src/pybind/mgr/cephadm/tests/test_cephadm.py
@@ -947,10 +947,12 @@ def check_registry_credentials(url, username, password):
                                  True
                              ])
     def test_upgrade_run(self, use_repo_digest, cephadm_module: CephadmOrchestrator):
+        cephadm_module.use_repo_digest = use_repo_digest
+
         with with_host(cephadm_module, 'test', refresh_hosts=False):
             cephadm_module.set_container_image('global', 'image')
+
             if use_repo_digest:
-                cephadm_module.use_repo_digest = True
 
                 CephadmServe(cephadm_module).convert_tags_to_repo_digest()
 
diff --git a/src/pybind/mgr/cephadm/tests/test_upgrade.py b/src/pybind/mgr/cephadm/tests/test_upgrade.py
index baa6c50a1a961e..5b2d0c372bc667 100644
--- a/src/pybind/mgr/cephadm/tests/test_upgrade.py
+++ b/src/pybind/mgr/cephadm/tests/test_upgrade.py
@@ -35,8 +35,7 @@ def test_upgrade_start(cephadm_module: CephadmOrchestrator):
 def test_upgrade_run(use_repo_digest, cephadm_module: CephadmOrchestrator):
     with with_host(cephadm_module, 'test'):
         cephadm_module.set_container_image('global', 'from_image')
-        if use_repo_digest:
-            cephadm_module.use_repo_digest = True
+        cephadm_module.use_repo_digest = use_repo_digest
         with with_service(cephadm_module, ServiceSpec('mgr'), CephadmOrchestrator.apply_mgr, 'test'):
             assert wait(cephadm_module, cephadm_module.upgrade_start(
                 'to_image', None)) == 'Initiating upgrade to to_image'