diff --git a/src/runtime/Makefile b/src/runtime/Makefile
index ecec0dc29..fbfa922dc 100644
--- a/src/runtime/Makefile
+++ b/src/runtime/Makefile
@@ -176,7 +176,7 @@ DEFSHAREDFS_QEMU_VIRTIOFS := virtio-fs
 DEFVIRTIOFSDAEMON := $(VIRTIOFSDBINDIR)/virtiofsd
 # Default DAX mapping cache size in MiB
 DEFVIRTIOFSCACHESIZE := 1024
-DEFVIRTIOFSCACHE ?= always
+DEFVIRTIOFSCACHE ?= auto
 # Format example:
 #   [\"-o\", \"arg1=xxx,arg2\", \"-o\", \"hello world\", \"--arg3=yyy\"]
 #