lib/PublicInbox/LeiOverview.pm | 2 --
 lib/PublicInbox/LeiQuery.pm    | 4 ++--

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiOverview.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiOverview.pm
index 68f6c792d67aad4221f61872b0a0d8585f4e511c..cdd9ee04766978b0151d5769a89f38d4ac294c6c 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiOverview.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiOverview.pm
@@ -101,8 +101,6 @@ 	}
 	if ($json) {
 		$lei->{dedupe} //= PublicInbox::LeiDedupe->new($lei);
 	} else {
-		# default to the cheapest sort since MUA usually resorts
-		$opt->{'sort'} //= 'docid' if $devfd < 0;
 		$lei->{l2m} = eval { PublicInbox::LeiToMail->new($lei) };
 		return $lei->fail($@) if $@;
 		if ($opt->{mua} && $lei->{l2m}->lock_free) {
diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiQuery.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiQuery.pm
index 5376c7f8db5b97f48f3fb505b03e34890d064e3e..3a437bf0030842c291c572af7301ff6c11b28a57 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiQuery.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiQuery.pm
@@ -128,8 +128,8 @@ 		} else {
 			die "unrecognized --sort=$sort\n";
 		}
 	}
-	# descending docid order
-	$mset_opt{relevance} //= -2 if $opt->{threads};
+	# descending docid order is cheapest, MUA controls sorting order
+	$mset_opt{relevance} //= -2 if $self->{l2m} || $opt->{threads};
 	$self->{mset_opt} = \%mset_opt;
 
 	if ($opt->{stdin}) {