diff --git a/notmuch-config.c b/notmuch-config.c
index e9b27509..61fda3ea 100644
--- a/notmuch-config.c
+++ b/notmuch-config.c
@@ -377,8 +377,7 @@ notmuch_config_open (void *ctx,
 
     if (notmuch_config_get_search_exclude_tags (config, &tmp) == NULL) {
 	if (is_new) {
-	    const char *tags[] = { "deleted", "spam" };
-	    notmuch_config_set_search_exclude_tags (config, tags, 2);
+	    /* We do not set default search_exclude_tags for 0.12 */
 	} else {
 	    notmuch_config_set_search_exclude_tags (config, NULL, 0);
 	}
diff --git a/notmuch-setup.c b/notmuch-setup.c
index 94d0aa7b..307231d5 100644
--- a/notmuch-setup.c
+++ b/notmuch-setup.c
@@ -133,8 +133,6 @@ notmuch_setup_command (unused (void *ctx),
     int is_new;
     const char **new_tags;
     size_t new_tags_len;
-    const char **search_exclude_tags;
-    size_t search_exclude_tags_len;
 
 #define prompt(format, ...)					\
     do {							\
@@ -211,22 +209,7 @@ notmuch_setup_command (unused (void *ctx),
     }
 
 
-    search_exclude_tags = notmuch_config_get_search_exclude_tags (config, &search_exclude_tags_len);
-
-    printf ("Tags to exclude when searching messages (separated by spaces) [");
-    print_tag_list (search_exclude_tags, search_exclude_tags_len);
-    prompt ("]: ");
-
-    if (strlen (response)) {
-	GPtrArray *tags = parse_tag_list (ctx, response);
-
-	notmuch_config_set_search_exclude_tags (config,
-						(const char **) tags->pdata,
-						tags->len);
-
-	g_ptr_array_free (tags, TRUE);
-    }
-
+    /* Temporarily remove exclude tag support for 0.12 */
 
     if (! notmuch_config_save (config)) {
 	if (is_new)