diff --git a/src/bin/sage b/src/bin/sage
index cd91656e1ea..e94cc50940e 100755
--- a/src/bin/sage
+++ b/src/bin/sage
@@ -960,10 +960,10 @@ if [ "$1" = '-pytest' -o "$1" = '--pytest' ]; then
             for a in $*; do
                 case $a in
                     -*) ;;
-                    *)  exec pytest --rootdir="$SAGE_SRC" --import-mode importlib "$@"
+                    *)  exec pytest --rootdir="$SAGE_SRC" "$@"
                 esac
             done
-            exec pytest --rootdir="$SAGE_SRC" --import-mode importlib "$@" "$SAGE_SRC"
+            exec pytest --rootdir="$SAGE_SRC" "$@" "$SAGE_SRC"
         else
             echo "Run 'sage -i pytest' to install"
         fi
diff --git a/src/bin/sage-runtests b/src/bin/sage-runtests
index 3022e446fee..14ebf4b6b96 100755
--- a/src/bin/sage-runtests
+++ b/src/bin/sage-runtests
@@ -151,7 +151,7 @@ if __name__ == "__main__":
     try:
         exit_code_pytest = 0
         import pytest
-        pytest_options = ["--import-mode", "importlib"]
+        pytest_options = []
         if args.verbose:
             pytest_options.append("-v")
         exit_code_pytest = pytest.main(pytest_options + args.filenames)
diff --git a/src/tox.ini b/src/tox.ini
index d68df4848bd..92f31602ba7 100644
--- a/src/tox.ini
+++ b/src/tox.ini
@@ -156,6 +156,7 @@ commands = codespell \
 
 [pytest]
 python_files = *_test.py
+addopts = --import-mode importlib
 
 [coverage:run]
 source = sage