diff --git a/cgit.c b/cgit.c
index b7807ad..e3fbbf4 100644
--- a/cgit.c
+++ b/cgit.c
@@ -416,6 +416,37 @@ char *find_default_branch(struct cgit_repo *repo)
 	return ref;
 }
 
+static char *guess_defbranch(const char *repo_path)
+{
+	int fd, len;
+	char buffer[256];
+	char *ref_start;
+	char *head;
+
+	head = fmt("%s/HEAD", repo_path);
+	fd = open(head, O_RDONLY);
+	if (fd == -1)
+		return xstrdup("master");
+
+	memset(buffer, 0, sizeof(buffer));
+	len = read_in_full(fd, buffer, sizeof(buffer) - 1);
+	close(fd);
+
+	if(!memcmp(buffer, "ref: refs/heads/", 16))
+		return xstrndup(buffer + 16, len - 17);
+
+	if(strlen(buffer) == 41) {
+		/* probably contains a SHA1 sum */
+		memset(buffer, 0, sizeof(buffer));
+		if(readlink(head, buffer, sizeof(buffer)-1)) {
+			ref_start = memmem(buffer, sizeof(buffer)-1, "refs/heads/", 11);
+			if(ref_start)
+				return xstrdup(ref_start+11);
+		}
+	}
+	return xstrdup("master");
+}
+
 static int prepare_repo_cmd(struct cgit_context *ctx)
 {
 	char *tmp;
@@ -442,10 +473,12 @@ static int prepare_repo_cmd(struct cgit_context *ctx)
 	}
 	ctx->page.title = fmt("%s - %s", ctx->repo->name, ctx->repo->desc);
 
+	if (!ctx->repo->defbranch)
+		ctx->repo->defbranch = guess_defbranch(ctx->repo->path);
+
 	if (!ctx->qry.head) {
 		ctx->qry.nohead = 1;
 		ctx->qry.head = find_default_branch(ctx->repo);
-		ctx->repo->defbranch = ctx->qry.head;
 	}
 
 	if (!ctx->qry.head) {
diff --git a/scan-tree.c b/scan-tree.c
index a429a9f..378d795 100644
--- a/scan-tree.c
+++ b/scan-tree.c
@@ -68,39 +68,6 @@ static char *xstrrchr(char *s, char *from, int c)
 	return from < s ? NULL : from;
 }
 
-static char *guess_defbranch(const char *repo_path)
-{
-	int fd, len;
-	char buffer[256];
-	char *ref_start;
-	char *head;
-
-	head = fmt("%s/HEAD", repo_path);
-	fd = open(head, O_RDONLY);
-	if (fd == -1)
-		return xstrdup("master");
-
-	memset(buffer, 0, sizeof(buffer));
-	len = read_in_full(fd, buffer, sizeof(buffer)-1);
-	close(fd);
-
-	if(!memcmp(buffer, "ref: refs/heads/", 16))
-		return xstrndup(buffer+16, len-17);
-
-	if(strlen(buffer) == 41) {
-		/* probably contains a SHA1 sum */
-		memset(buffer, 0, sizeof(buffer));
-		if(readlink(head, buffer, sizeof(buffer)-1)) {
-			ref_start = memmem(buffer, sizeof(buffer)-1, "refs/heads/", 11);
-			if(ref_start)
-				return xstrdup(ref_start+11);
-		}
-	}
-
-	return xstrdup("master");
-}
-
-
 static void add_repo(const char *base, const char *path, repo_config_fn fn)
 {
 	struct stat st;
@@ -138,9 +105,6 @@ static void add_repo(const char *base, const char *path, repo_config_fn fn)
 			*p = '\0';
 	repo->name = repo->url;
 	repo->path = xstrdup(path);
-
-	repo->defbranch = guess_defbranch(repo->path);
-
 	while (!owner) {
 		if ((pwd = getpwuid(st.st_uid)) == NULL) {
 			fprintf(stderr, "Error reading owner-info for %s: %s (%d)\n",
diff --git a/shared.c b/shared.c
index 699c362..9c839a9 100644
--- a/shared.c
+++ b/shared.c
@@ -56,7 +56,6 @@ struct cgit_repo *cgit_add_repo(const char *url)
 	ret->desc = "[no description]";
 	ret->owner = NULL;
 	ret->section = ctx.cfg.section;
-	ret->defbranch = "master";
 	ret->snapshots = ctx.cfg.snapshots;
 	ret->enable_commit_graph = ctx.cfg.enable_commit_graph;
 	ret->enable_log_filecount = ctx.cfg.enable_log_filecount;