diff --git a/src/actions/recomputeReduxState.js b/src/actions/recomputeReduxState.js
index 6bc9683f0..9962b7bc8 100644
--- a/src/actions/recomputeReduxState.js
+++ b/src/actions/recomputeReduxState.js
@@ -274,7 +274,12 @@ const checkAndCorrectErrorsInState = (state, metadata, query) => {
     if (availableNonGenotypeColorBys.indexOf("gt") > -1) {
       availableNonGenotypeColorBys.splice(availableNonGenotypeColorBys.indexOf("gt"), 1);
     }
-    if (availableNonGenotypeColorBys.length) {
+
+    if (metadata.defaults && metadata.defaults.colorBy && availableNonGenotypeColorBys.indexOf(metadata.defaults.colorBy) !== -1) {
+      console.warn("colorBy falling back to", metadata.defaults.colorBy);
+      state.colorBy = metadata.defaults.colorBy;
+      state.defaults.colorBy = metadata.defaults.colorBy;
+    } else if (availableNonGenotypeColorBys.length) {
       console.error("Error detected trying to set colorBy to", state.colorBy, "falling back to", availableNonGenotypeColorBys[0]);
       state.colorBy = availableNonGenotypeColorBys[0];
       state.defaults.colorBy = availableNonGenotypeColorBys[0];