diff --git a/Documentation/Monitors/MySQL-Monitor.md b/Documentation/Monitors/MySQL-Monitor.md
index 74e6adbfa..a74e7613d 100644
--- a/Documentation/Monitors/MySQL-Monitor.md
+++ b/Documentation/Monitors/MySQL-Monitor.md
@@ -139,8 +139,9 @@ External Server, Running` labels will instead get the `Master, Running` labels.
 
 ### `detect_standalone_master`
 
-Detect standalone master servers. This feature takes a boolean parameter and is
-disabled by default. In MaxScale 2.1.0, this parameter was called `failover`.
+Detect standalone master servers. This feature takes a boolean parameter and
+from MaxScale 2.2.1 onwards is enabled by default. Up until MaxScale 2.2.0 it
+was disabled by default. In MaxScale 2.1.0, this parameter was called `failover`.
 
 This parameter is intended to be used with simple, two node master-slave pairs
 where the failure of the master can be resolved by "promoting" the slave as the
diff --git a/Documentation/Release-Notes/MaxScale-2.2.1-Release-Notes.md b/Documentation/Release-Notes/MaxScale-2.2.1-Release-Notes.md
index 843614859..529f4731d 100644
--- a/Documentation/Release-Notes/MaxScale-2.2.1-Release-Notes.md
+++ b/Documentation/Release-Notes/MaxScale-2.2.1-Release-Notes.md
@@ -37,6 +37,11 @@ root@host:~# maxscale --user=root ...
   automatically enabled. In MaxScale 2.2.0, if `transaction_safety` was disabled
   when `mariadb10_master_gtid` was enabled MaxScale would refuse to start.
 
+### MySQL Monitor
+
+The default value of the configuration parameter `detect_standalone_master` has
+been changed from `false` to `true`.
+
 ## Dropped Features
 
 ## New Features
diff --git a/server/modules/monitor/mysqlmon/mysql_mon.c b/server/modules/monitor/mysqlmon/mysql_mon.c
index 14226c14b..63a6ffa67 100644
--- a/server/modules/monitor/mysqlmon/mysql_mon.c
+++ b/server/modules/monitor/mysqlmon/mysql_mon.c
@@ -126,7 +126,7 @@ MXS_MODULE* MXS_CREATE_MODULE()
             {"detect_stale_slave",  MXS_MODULE_PARAM_BOOL, "true"},
             {"mysql51_replication", MXS_MODULE_PARAM_BOOL, "false"},
             {"multimaster", MXS_MODULE_PARAM_BOOL, "false"},
-            {"detect_standalone_master", MXS_MODULE_PARAM_BOOL, "false"},
+            {"detect_standalone_master", MXS_MODULE_PARAM_BOOL, "true"},
             {"failcount", MXS_MODULE_PARAM_COUNT, "5"},
             {"allow_cluster_recovery", MXS_MODULE_PARAM_BOOL, "true"},
             {"ignore_external_masters", MXS_MODULE_PARAM_BOOL, "false"},