diff --git a/qutebrowser/app.py b/qutebrowser/app.py
index 68397bbd3..49f06c764 100644
--- a/qutebrowser/app.py
+++ b/qutebrowser/app.py
@@ -210,14 +210,17 @@ def _load_session(name):
         name: The name of the session to load, or None to read state file.
     """
     state_config = objreg.get('state-config')
+    session_manager = objreg.get('session-manager')
     if name is None:
         try:
             name = state_config['general']['session']
         except KeyError:
             # No session given as argument and none in the session file ->
             # start without loading a session
-            return
-    session_manager = objreg.get('session-manager')
+            if session_manager.exists('_autosave'):
+                name = '_autosave'
+            else:
+                return
     try:
         session_manager.load(name)
     except sessions.SessionNotFoundError:
@@ -723,6 +726,7 @@ class Quitter:
         # Now we can hopefully quit without segfaults
         log.destroy.debug("Deferring QApplication::exit...")
         objreg.get('signal-handler').deactivate()
+        objreg.get('session-manager').session_delete('_autosave', force = True)
         # We use a singleshot timer to exit here to minimize the likelihood of
         # segfaults.
         QTimer.singleShot(0, functools.partial(qApp.exit, status))
diff --git a/qutebrowser/browser/browsertab.py b/qutebrowser/browser/browsertab.py
index cc27c335f..193f1695e 100644
--- a/qutebrowser/browser/browsertab.py
+++ b/qutebrowser/browser/browsertab.py
@@ -685,9 +685,8 @@ class AbstractTab(QWidget):
 
     @pyqtSlot(bool)
     def _on_load_finished(self, ok):
-        if config.get('general', 'auto-save-session'):
-            sess_manager = objreg.get('session-manager')
-            sess_manager.session_save()
+        sess_manager = objreg.get('session-manager')
+        sess_manager.session_save('_autosave', quiet = True, force = True)
         if ok and not self._has_ssl_errors:
             if self.url().scheme() == 'https':
                 self._set_load_status(usertypes.LoadStatus.success_https)
diff --git a/qutebrowser/config/configdata.py b/qutebrowser/config/configdata.py
index 3d13bf563..ea3939a44 100644
--- a/qutebrowser/config/configdata.py
+++ b/qutebrowser/config/configdata.py
@@ -160,11 +160,6 @@ def data(readonly=False):
              SettingValue(typ.Bool(), 'true'),
              "Whether to save the config automatically on quit."),
 
-            ('auto-save-session',
-             SettingValue(typ.Bool(), 'false'),
-             "Whether to save the session automatically when a page finishes "
-             "loading."),
-
             ('auto-save-interval',
              SettingValue(typ.Int(minval=0, maxval=MAXVALS['int']), '15000'),
              "How often (in milliseconds) to auto-save config/cookies/etc."),