diff --git a/src/backends/native/meta-onscreen-native.c b/src/backends/native/meta-onscreen-native.c
index 95f7ec3d09d6fff177e14bb120f5e181f386b877..68254d9ad2e16a3d42f4cef9eba11bf4e2c695f3 100644
--- a/src/backends/native/meta-onscreen-native.c
+++ b/src/backends/native/meta-onscreen-native.c
@@ -1290,7 +1290,15 @@ update_secondary_gpu_state_pre_swap_buffers (CoglOnscreen    *onscreen,
           /* prepare fallback */
           G_GNUC_FALLTHROUGH;
         case META_SHARED_FRAMEBUFFER_COPY_MODE_PRIMARY:
-          if (!renderer_gpu_data->secondary.copy_mode_primary_force_cpu)
+          /*
+           * Only recover from a failed zero-copy using the primary GPU if we
+           * DIDN'T initialise to fall back to the secondary GPU. So our
+           * first recovery frame will be a CPU copy if required and then
+           * the second and subsequent frames will be secondary GPU copies.
+           */
+          if (renderer_gpu_data->secondary.fallback_copy_mode !=
+              META_SHARED_FRAMEBUFFER_COPY_MODE_SECONDARY_GPU &&
+              !renderer_gpu_data->secondary.copy_mode_primary_force_cpu)
             {
               copy = copy_shared_framebuffer_primary_gpu (onscreen,
                                                           secondary_gpu_state,
@@ -1360,7 +1368,13 @@ acquire_front_buffer (CoglOnscreen   *onscreen,
        * in secondary_gpu_fb.
        */
       renderer_gpu_data->secondary.copy_mode =
-        META_SHARED_FRAMEBUFFER_COPY_MODE_PRIMARY;
+        renderer_gpu_data->secondary.fallback_copy_mode;
+      /*
+       * Yes we fall through to primary copy mode to recover from a failed
+       * zero-copy even if the fallback mode is secondary. Because only
+       * primary can recover from a zero copy failure. On the next frame
+       * we will start using the fallback_copy_mode proper.
+       */
       G_GNUC_FALLTHROUGH;
     case META_SHARED_FRAMEBUFFER_COPY_MODE_PRIMARY:
       if (secondary_gpu_fb == NULL)
@@ -2852,10 +2866,15 @@ init_secondary_gpu_state_cpu_copy_mode (MetaRendererNative         *renderer_nat
               drm_format,
               width, height);
 
-  secondary_gpu_state = g_new0 (MetaOnscreenNativeSecondaryGpuState, 1);
-  secondary_gpu_state->renderer_gpu_data = renderer_gpu_data;
-  secondary_gpu_state->gpu_kms = gpu_kms;
-  secondary_gpu_state->egl_surface = EGL_NO_SURFACE;
+  secondary_gpu_state = onscreen_native->secondary_gpu_state;
+  /* Coexist with init_secondary_gpu_state_gpu_copy_mode if it was used... */
+  if (!secondary_gpu_state)
+    {
+      secondary_gpu_state = g_new0 (MetaOnscreenNativeSecondaryGpuState, 1);
+      secondary_gpu_state->renderer_gpu_data = renderer_gpu_data;
+      secondary_gpu_state->gpu_kms = gpu_kms;
+      secondary_gpu_state->egl_surface = EGL_NO_SURFACE;
+    }
 
   for (i = 0; i < G_N_ELEMENTS (secondary_gpu_state->cpu.dumb_fbs); i++)
     {
@@ -2899,41 +2918,21 @@ init_secondary_gpu_state (MetaRendererNative  *renderer_native,
   renderer_gpu_data = meta_renderer_native_get_gpu_data (renderer_native,
                                                          META_GPU_KMS (gpu));
 
-  switch (renderer_gpu_data->secondary.copy_mode)
+  if ((renderer_gpu_data->secondary.fallback_copy_mode ==
+       META_SHARED_FRAMEBUFFER_COPY_MODE_SECONDARY_GPU) &&
+      !init_secondary_gpu_state_gpu_copy_mode (renderer_native,
+                                               onscreen,
+                                               renderer_gpu_data,
+                                               &local_error))
     {
-    case META_SHARED_FRAMEBUFFER_COPY_MODE_SECONDARY_GPU:
-      if (init_secondary_gpu_state_gpu_copy_mode (renderer_native,
-                                                  onscreen,
-                                                  renderer_gpu_data,
-                                                  &local_error))
-        return TRUE;
-
-      g_warning ("Secondary GPU initialization failed (%s). "
-                 "Falling back to GPU-less mode instead, so the "
-                 "secondary monitor may be slow to update.",
-                 local_error->message);
-
-      renderer_gpu_data->secondary.copy_mode =
-        META_SHARED_FRAMEBUFFER_COPY_MODE_ZERO;
-
-      G_GNUC_FALLTHROUGH;
-    case META_SHARED_FRAMEBUFFER_COPY_MODE_ZERO:
-      /*
-       * Initialize also the primary copy mode, so that if zero-copy
-       * path fails, which is quite likely, we can simply continue
-       * with the primary copy path on the very first frame.
-       */
-      G_GNUC_FALLTHROUGH;
-    case META_SHARED_FRAMEBUFFER_COPY_MODE_PRIMARY:
-      if (!init_secondary_gpu_state_cpu_copy_mode (renderer_native,
-                                                   onscreen,
-                                                   renderer_gpu_data,
-                                                   error))
-        return FALSE;
-      break;
+      renderer_gpu_data->secondary.fallback_copy_mode =
+        META_SHARED_FRAMEBUFFER_COPY_MODE_PRIMARY;
     }
 
-  return TRUE;
+  return init_secondary_gpu_state_cpu_copy_mode (renderer_native,
+                                                 onscreen,
+                                                 renderer_gpu_data,
+                                                 error);
 }
 
 void
diff --git a/src/backends/native/meta-renderer-native-private.h b/src/backends/native/meta-renderer-native-private.h
index 9c7887a1efcd009bf86f119e7c6af0f57a30b1da..86793e0ffa80db3f531f7bb56d18b20bf58f8242 100644
--- a/src/backends/native/meta-renderer-native-private.h
+++ b/src/backends/native/meta-renderer-native-private.h
@@ -60,6 +60,7 @@ typedef struct _MetaRendererNativeGpuData
   struct {
     MetaSharedFramebufferCopyMode copy_mode;
     gboolean copy_mode_primary_force_cpu;
+    MetaSharedFramebufferCopyMode fallback_copy_mode;
     gboolean has_EGL_EXT_image_dma_buf_import_modifiers;
     gboolean needs_explicit_sync;
 
diff --git a/src/backends/native/meta-renderer-native.c b/src/backends/native/meta-renderer-native.c
index 8af326121820a7744005512a4c55445a4d882f72..42c325ac922452ffbb7d5ebc61c44287ca6a33a0 100644
--- a/src/backends/native/meta-renderer-native.c
+++ b/src/backends/native/meta-renderer-native.c
@@ -1919,7 +1919,7 @@ set_default_secondary_gpu_copy_mode (MetaRendererNativeGpuData *gpu_data)
 {
   const char *copy_mode;
 
-  gpu_data->secondary.copy_mode =
+  gpu_data->secondary.fallback_copy_mode =
     META_SHARED_FRAMEBUFFER_COPY_MODE_SECONDARY_GPU;
 
   copy_mode = getenv ("MUTTER_DEBUG_MULTI_GPU_FORCE_COPY_MODE");
@@ -1928,16 +1928,16 @@ set_default_secondary_gpu_copy_mode (MetaRendererNativeGpuData *gpu_data)
 
   if (strcmp (copy_mode, "primary-gpu-gpu") == 0)
     {
-      gpu_data->secondary.copy_mode = META_SHARED_FRAMEBUFFER_COPY_MODE_PRIMARY;
+      gpu_data->secondary.fallback_copy_mode = META_SHARED_FRAMEBUFFER_COPY_MODE_PRIMARY;
     }
   else if (strcmp (copy_mode, "primary-gpu-cpu") == 0)
     {
-      gpu_data->secondary.copy_mode = META_SHARED_FRAMEBUFFER_COPY_MODE_PRIMARY;
+      gpu_data->secondary.fallback_copy_mode = META_SHARED_FRAMEBUFFER_COPY_MODE_PRIMARY;
       gpu_data->secondary.copy_mode_primary_force_cpu = TRUE;
     }
   else if (strcmp (copy_mode, "zero-copy") == 0)
     {
-      gpu_data->secondary.copy_mode = META_SHARED_FRAMEBUFFER_COPY_MODE_ZERO;
+      gpu_data->secondary.fallback_copy_mode = META_SHARED_FRAMEBUFFER_COPY_MODE_ZERO;
     }
 }
 
@@ -2039,27 +2039,22 @@ out:
   return ret;
 }
 
-static void
-init_secondary_gpu_data_cpu (MetaRendererNativeGpuData *renderer_gpu_data)
-{
-  /* First try ZERO, it automatically falls back to PRIMARY as needed */
-  renderer_gpu_data->secondary.copy_mode =
-    META_SHARED_FRAMEBUFFER_COPY_MODE_ZERO;
-}
-
 static void
 init_secondary_gpu_data (MetaRendererNativeGpuData *renderer_gpu_data)
 {
   GError *error = NULL;
 
+  renderer_gpu_data->secondary.copy_mode =
+    META_SHARED_FRAMEBUFFER_COPY_MODE_ZERO;
+  renderer_gpu_data->secondary.fallback_copy_mode =
+    META_SHARED_FRAMEBUFFER_COPY_MODE_PRIMARY;
+
   if (init_secondary_gpu_data_gpu (renderer_gpu_data, &error))
     return;
 
   g_message ("Failed to initialize accelerated iGPU/dGPU framebuffer sharing: %s",
              error->message);
   g_error_free (error);
-
-  init_secondary_gpu_data_cpu (renderer_gpu_data);
 }
 
 static gboolean