diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index 49f37a4a7..d04204fc7 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ Emulation fixes:
  - GBA Video: Revert scanline latching changes (fixes mgba.io/i/2153, mgba.io/i/2149)
 Other fixes:
  - Core: Fix memory leak in opening games from the library
+ - GB Core: Fix GBC colors setting breaking default model overrides (fixes mgba.io/i/2161)
  - Qt: Fix infrequent deadlock when using sync to video
  - Qt: Fix applying savetype-only overrides
  - Util: Fix loading UPS patches that affect the last byte of the file
diff --git a/src/gb/core.c b/src/gb/core.c
index 9f4f453fd..20997df6d 100644
--- a/src/gb/core.c
+++ b/src/gb/core.c
@@ -446,7 +446,8 @@ static void _GBCoreReset(struct mCore* core) {
 		bool modelOverride = GBOverrideFind(gbcore->overrides, &override) || (doColorOverride && GBOverrideColorFind(&override));
 		if (modelOverride) {
 			GBOverrideApply(gb, &override);
-		} else {
+		}
+		if (!modelOverride || override.model == GB_MODEL_AUTODETECT) {
 			const char* modelGB = mCoreConfigGetValue(&core->config, "gb.model");
 			const char* modelSGB = mCoreConfigGetValue(&core->config, "sgb.model");
 			const char* modelCGB = mCoreConfigGetValue(&core->config, "cgb.model");