diff --git a/doc/developer-notes.md b/doc/developer-notes.md
index 8f7db31d5..7d3d78adf 100644
--- a/doc/developer-notes.md
+++ b/doc/developer-notes.md
@@ -102,7 +102,7 @@ CXXFLAGS="-g -ggdb -O0" or whatever debug flags you need.
 If the code is behaving strangely, take a look in the debug.log file in the data directory;
 error and debugging messages are written there.
 
-The -debug=... command-line option controls debugging; running with just -debug will turn
+The -debug=... command-line option controls debugging; running with just -debug or -debug=1 will turn
 on all categories (and give you a very large debug.log file).
 
 The Qt code routes qDebug() output to debug.log under category "qt": run with -debug=qt
diff --git a/src/init.cpp b/src/init.cpp
index f4136f09e..2e4740602 100644
--- a/src/init.cpp
+++ b/src/init.cpp
@@ -368,7 +368,7 @@ std::string HelpMessage(HelpMessageMode mode)
     if (mode == HMM_BITCOIN_QT)
         debugCategories += ", qt";
     strUsage += HelpMessageOpt("-debug=<category>", strprintf(_("Output debugging information (default: %u, supplying <category> is optional)"), 0) + ". " +
-        _("If <category> is not supplied, output all debugging information.") + _("<category> can be:") + " " + debugCategories + ".");
+        _("If <category> is not supplied or if <category> = 1, output all debugging information.") + _("<category> can be:") + " " + debugCategories + ".");
 #ifdef ENABLE_WALLET
     strUsage += HelpMessageOpt("-gen", strprintf(_("Generate coins (default: %u)"), 0));
     strUsage += HelpMessageOpt("-genproclimit=<n>", strprintf(_("Set the number of threads for coin generation if enabled (-1 = all cores, default: %d)"), 1));
diff --git a/src/util.cpp b/src/util.cpp
index bfb95c904..33b5ee950 100644
--- a/src/util.cpp
+++ b/src/util.cpp
@@ -208,6 +208,7 @@ bool LogAcceptCategory(const char* category)
 
         // if not debugging everything and not debugging specific category, LogPrint does nothing.
         if (setCategories.count(string("")) == 0 &&
+            setCategories.count(string("1")) == 0 &&
             setCategories.count(string(category)) == 0)
             return false;
     }