diff --git a/internal/buffer/save.go b/internal/buffer/save.go
index 74b890eb..6f07ea6c 100644
--- a/internal/buffer/save.go
+++ b/internal/buffer/save.go
@@ -112,7 +112,7 @@ func (b *Buffer) saveToFile(filename string, withSudo bool) error {
 	if b.Settings["eofnewline"].(bool) {
 		end := b.End()
 		if b.RuneAt(Loc{end.X, end.Y}) != '\n' {
-			b.Insert(end, "\n")
+			b.insert(end, []byte{'\n'})
 		}
 	}
 
diff --git a/internal/config/settings.go b/internal/config/settings.go
index 81c431d8..5f5694e2 100644
--- a/internal/config/settings.go
+++ b/internal/config/settings.go
@@ -191,7 +191,7 @@ var defaultCommonSettings = map[string]interface{}{
 	"cursorline":     true,
 	"diffgutter":     false,
 	"encoding":       "utf-8",
-	"eofnewline":     false,
+	"eofnewline":     true,
 	"fastdirty":      false,
 	"fileformat":     "unix",
 	"filetype":       "unknown",
diff --git a/runtime/help/options.md b/runtime/help/options.md
index 709bd5da..8b118380 100644
--- a/runtime/help/options.md
+++ b/runtime/help/options.md
@@ -85,9 +85,10 @@ Here are the available options:
 
     default value: `utf-8`
 
-* `eofnewline`: micro will automatically add a newline to the file.
+* `eofnewline`: micro will automatically add a newline to the end of the
+   file if one does not exist.
 
-	default value: `false`
+	default value: `true`
 
 * `fastdirty`: this determines what kind of algorithm micro uses to determine
    if a buffer is modified or not. When `fastdirty` is on, micro just uses a