diff --git a/db/post_migrate/20210317104032_set_iteration_cadence_automatic_to_false.rb b/db/post_migrate/20210317104032_set_iteration_cadence_automatic_to_false.rb
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..c151551ae640af3ad19128d3b2def723df8bd5ec
--- /dev/null
+++ b/db/post_migrate/20210317104032_set_iteration_cadence_automatic_to_false.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+# frozen_string_literal: true
+
+class SetIterationCadenceAutomaticToFalse < ActiveRecord::Migration[6.0]
+  DOWNTIME = false
+
+  def up
+    ActiveRecord::Base.connection.execute <<~SQL
+      UPDATE iterations_cadences
+      SET automatic = FALSE
+      WHERE iterations_cadences.automatic = TRUE
+    SQL
+  end
+
+  def down
+    #  no-op
+  end
+end
diff --git a/db/schema_migrations/20210317104032 b/db/schema_migrations/20210317104032
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..616397a0663a4fd1aee5ebc53eb0a6151f6458d7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/db/schema_migrations/20210317104032
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+c954e1f2bfdfddc98030bfa0ab28f58a41921cbb5b81e088cde12637e3ae5a8f
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/ee/app/models/ee/iteration.rb b/ee/app/models/ee/iteration.rb
index 5c948d9278e99906df8a2216e17da127ba6bd7ff..31ac922bd0bb84662285e587bef184f4b2cc8dc6 100644
--- a/ee/app/models/ee/iteration.rb
+++ b/ee/app/models/ee/iteration.rb
@@ -211,6 +211,7 @@ def find_or_create_default_cadence
       ::Iterations::Cadence.create_with(
         title: cadence_title,
         start_date: start_date,
+        automatic: false,
         # set to 0, i.e. unspecified when creating default iterations as we do validate for presence.
         iterations_in_advance: 0,
         duration_in_weeks: 0
diff --git a/ee/changelogs/unreleased/automate-iteration-creation-per-cadence.yml b/ee/changelogs/unreleased/automate-iteration-creation-per-cadence.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..c9506c48695d9e011aa57aba2ab9f62a00790d9e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ee/changelogs/unreleased/automate-iteration-creation-per-cadence.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+title: Set default cadences to non-automatic
+merge_request: 56842
+author:
+type: fixed