diff --git a/hudi-client/hudi-spark-client/src/test/java/org/apache/hudi/client/functional/TestHoodieMetadataBase.java b/hudi-client/hudi-spark-client/src/test/java/org/apache/hudi/client/functional/TestHoodieMetadataBase.java
index 0a45d31c8925b..25dfd292d26e7 100644
--- a/hudi-client/hudi-spark-client/src/test/java/org/apache/hudi/client/functional/TestHoodieMetadataBase.java
+++ b/hudi-client/hudi-spark-client/src/test/java/org/apache/hudi/client/functional/TestHoodieMetadataBase.java
@@ -292,7 +292,7 @@ protected HoodieWriteConfig.Builder getWriteConfigBuilder(HoodieFailedWritesClea
             .enable(useFileListingMetadata)
             .enableFullScan(enableFullScan)
             .enableMetrics(enableMetrics)
-            .withPopulateMetaFields(false)
+            .withPopulateMetaFields(HoodieMetadataConfig.POPULATE_META_FIELDS.defaultValue())
             .ignoreSpuriousDeletes(validateMetadataPayloadConsistency)
             .build())
         .withMetricsConfig(HoodieMetricsConfig.newBuilder().on(enableMetrics)
diff --git a/hudi-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hudi/common/config/HoodieMetadataConfig.java b/hudi-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hudi/common/config/HoodieMetadataConfig.java
index 810e475e5b460..e803d2081797b 100644
--- a/hudi-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hudi/common/config/HoodieMetadataConfig.java
+++ b/hudi-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hudi/common/config/HoodieMetadataConfig.java
@@ -132,9 +132,9 @@ public final class HoodieMetadataConfig extends HoodieConfig {
       .sinceVersion("0.10.0")
       .withDocumentation("Enable full scanning of log files while reading log records. If disabled, hudi does look up of only interested entries.");
 
-  public static final ConfigProperty<String> POPULATE_META_FIELDS = ConfigProperty
+  public static final ConfigProperty<Boolean> POPULATE_META_FIELDS = ConfigProperty
       .key(METADATA_PREFIX + ".populate.meta.fields")
-      .defaultValue("false")
+      .defaultValue(true)
       .sinceVersion("0.10.0")
       .withDocumentation("When enabled, populates all meta fields. When disabled, no meta fields are populated.");