diff --git a/internal/gitaly/service/remote/fetch_internal_remote.go b/internal/gitaly/service/remote/fetch_internal_remote.go
index 5c72264c1943185eb5f4e1580a5fda43e595a097..eee66218ef808828dc0bd5dad60e0ec626ba8de5 100644
--- a/internal/gitaly/service/remote/fetch_internal_remote.go
+++ b/internal/gitaly/service/remote/fetch_internal_remote.go
@@ -107,7 +107,7 @@ func (s *server) FetchInternalRemote(ctx context.Context, req *gitalypb.FetchInt
 	if err := FetchInternalRemote(ctx, s.cfg, s.conns, repo, req.RemoteRepository); err != nil {
 		var fetchErr fetchFailedError
 
-		if featureflag.IsDisabled(ctx, featureflag.FetchInternalRemoteErrors) && errors.As(err, &fetchErr) {
+		if s.isFetchInternalRemoteErrorsDisabled(ctx) && errors.As(err, &fetchErr) {
 			// Design quirk: if the fetch fails, this RPC returns Result: false, but no error.
 			ctxlogrus.Extract(ctx).WithError(fetchErr.err).WithField("stderr", fetchErr.stderr).Warn("git fetch failed")
 			return &gitalypb.FetchInternalRemoteResponse{Result: false}, nil
@@ -119,6 +119,13 @@ func (s *server) FetchInternalRemote(ctx context.Context, req *gitalypb.FetchInt
 	return &gitalypb.FetchInternalRemoteResponse{Result: true}, nil
 }
 
+func (s *server) isFetchInternalRemoteErrorsDisabled(ctx context.Context) bool {
+	// Since feature flags can only be turned on through requests from
+	// gitlab-rails we need a way to explicitly disable the feature without
+	// triggering a new release.
+	return featureflag.IsDisabled(ctx, featureflag.FetchInternalRemoteErrors) || s.disableFetchInternalRemoteErrors
+}
+
 // getRemoteDefaultBranch gets the default branch of a repository hosted on another Gitaly node.
 func getRemoteDefaultBranch(ctx context.Context, repo *gitalypb.Repository, conns *client.Pool) ([]byte, error) {
 	serverInfo, err := helper.ExtractGitalyServer(ctx, repo.StorageName)
diff --git a/internal/gitaly/service/remote/fetch_internal_remote_test.go b/internal/gitaly/service/remote/fetch_internal_remote_test.go
index d593ca7223c01dfe310f7b5d60c1c5cee8da37e3..db784800021d706ba89f5912b1d66fccdb20afa7 100644
--- a/internal/gitaly/service/remote/fetch_internal_remote_test.go
+++ b/internal/gitaly/service/remote/fetch_internal_remote_test.go
@@ -260,6 +260,27 @@ func TestFailedFetchInternalRemote(t *testing.T) {
 		require.NoError(t, err, "FetchInternalRemote is not supposed to return an error when 'git fetch' fails")
 		require.False(t, c.GetResult())
 	})
+
+	t.Run("GITALY_DISABLE_FETCH_INTERNAL_REMOTE_ERRORS set", func(t *testing.T) {
+		cleanup := testhelper.ModifyEnvironment(t, "GITALY_DISABLE_FETCH_INTERNAL_REMOTE_ERRORS", "1")
+		t.Cleanup(cleanup)
+
+		cfg, repo, _, client := setupRemoteService(t)
+
+		ctx := testhelper.MergeOutgoingMetadata(ctx, testhelper.GitalyServersMetadataFromCfg(t, cfg))
+
+		// Non-existing remote repo
+		remoteRepo := &gitalypb.Repository{StorageName: repo.GetStorageName(), RelativePath: "fake.git"}
+
+		request := &gitalypb.FetchInternalRemoteRequest{
+			Repository:       repo,
+			RemoteRepository: remoteRepo,
+		}
+
+		c, err := client.FetchInternalRemote(ctx, request)
+		require.NoError(t, err, "FetchInternalRemote is not supposed to return an error when 'git fetch' fails")
+		require.False(t, c.GetResult())
+	})
 }
 
 func TestFailedFetchInternalRemoteDueToValidations(t *testing.T) {
diff --git a/internal/gitaly/service/remote/server.go b/internal/gitaly/service/remote/server.go
index 2d0bd3dafe0e208fd1b5283d129a40250fc781a8..c7ca4fadf7b567a0b853876456e8e04094b9550a 100644
--- a/internal/gitaly/service/remote/server.go
+++ b/internal/gitaly/service/remote/server.go
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ import (
 	"gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitaly/v14/internal/gitaly/config"
 	"gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitaly/v14/internal/gitaly/rubyserver"
 	"gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitaly/v14/internal/gitaly/transaction"
+	"gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitaly/v14/internal/helper/env"
 	"gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitaly/v14/internal/storage"
 	"gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitaly/v14/proto/go/gitalypb"
 )
@@ -23,6 +24,8 @@ type server struct {
 	txManager     transaction.Manager
 
 	conns *client.Pool
+
+	disableFetchInternalRemoteErrors bool
 }
 
 // NewServer creates a new instance of a grpc RemoteServiceServer
@@ -34,6 +37,11 @@ func NewServer(
 	catfileCache catfile.Cache,
 	txManager transaction.Manager,
 ) gitalypb.RemoteServiceServer {
+	disableFetchInternalRemoteErrors, err := env.GetBool("GITALY_DISABLE_FETCH_INTERNAL_REMOTE_ERRORS", false)
+	if err != nil {
+		panic(err)
+	}
+
 	return &server{
 		cfg:           cfg,
 		ruby:          rs,
@@ -45,6 +53,7 @@ func NewServer(
 			client.WithDialer(client.HealthCheckDialer(client.DialContext)),
 			client.WithDialOptions(client.FailOnNonTempDialError()...),
 		),
+		disableFetchInternalRemoteErrors: disableFetchInternalRemoteErrors,
 	}
 }
 
diff --git a/internal/metadata/featureflag/feature_flags.go b/internal/metadata/featureflag/feature_flags.go
index 4b8d05bf671a87dcf3881a6ca63cd97bdc6c2380..1d2767d4d80d1fd266846d8f4bc1d241bb777c97 100644
--- a/internal/metadata/featureflag/feature_flags.go
+++ b/internal/metadata/featureflag/feature_flags.go
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ var (
 	// GoUpdateRemoteMirror enables the Go implementation of UpdateRemoteMirror
 	GoUpdateRemoteMirror = FeatureFlag{Name: "go_update_remote_mirror", OnByDefault: false}
 	// FetchInternalRemoteErrors makes FetchInternalRemote return actual errors instead of a boolean
-	FetchInternalRemoteErrors = FeatureFlag{Name: "fetch_internal_remote_errors", OnByDefault: false}
+	FetchInternalRemoteErrors = FeatureFlag{Name: "fetch_internal_remote_errors", OnByDefault: true}
 	// TxConfig enables transactional voting for SetConfig and DeleteConfig RPCs.
 	TxConfig = FeatureFlag{Name: "tx_config", OnByDefault: true}
 	// TxRemote enables transactional voting for AddRemote and DeleteRemote.