diff --git a/pkg/components/imguploader/imguploader.go b/pkg/components/imguploader/imguploader.go
index b1861eb14ba..383d2c6d311 100644
--- a/pkg/components/imguploader/imguploader.go
+++ b/pkg/components/imguploader/imguploader.go
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ package imguploader
 import (
 	"context"
 	"fmt"
+	"github.com/grafana/grafana/pkg/log"
 	"regexp"
 
 	"github.com/grafana/grafana/pkg/setting"
@@ -89,6 +90,10 @@ func NewImageUploader() (ImageUploader, error) {
 		return NewAzureBlobUploader(account_name, account_key, container_name), nil
 	}
 
+	if setting.ImageUploadProvider != "" {
+		log.Error2("The external image storage configuration is invalid", "unsupported provider", setting.ImageUploadProvider)
+	}
+
 	return NopImageUploader{}, nil
 }
 
diff --git a/pkg/setting/setting.go b/pkg/setting/setting.go
index 6a6df2b61fb..eb4fa6cb5e0 100644
--- a/pkg/setting/setting.go
+++ b/pkg/setting/setting.go
@@ -610,7 +610,7 @@ func NewConfigContext(args *CommandLineArgs) error {
 	}
 
 	imageUploadingSection := Cfg.Section("external_image_storage")
-	ImageUploadProvider = imageUploadingSection.Key("provider").MustString("internal")
+	ImageUploadProvider = imageUploadingSection.Key("provider").MustString("")
 	return nil
 }