diff --git a/src/files.jl b/src/files.jl
index 8513f9cb240c7a3b9516b8515fbd2cce08e1016e..4ba72f1181e918e28fbadffcd6040403f74c561a 100644
--- a/src/files.jl
+++ b/src/files.jl
@@ -158,13 +158,19 @@ function tryopenfile(controller, path; reload::Bool=false)
                            )
         fallback_color = theme[:LarvaPlot][:fallback_color]
         existingtags = records.tags
+        # following issue #55, we need to identify situations where _large-suffixed
+        # tags are found together with their suffix-free variants
         apply_default_convention = false
         for tag in existingtags
             if tag in keys(default_convention)
-                apply_default_convention = true
-                break
+                variant, suffix = rsplit(string(tag), '_'; limit=2)
+                if suffix == "large" && Symbol(variant) in existingtags
+                    apply_default_convention = true
+                    break
+                end
             end
         end
+        #
         for tag in existingtags
             active′= tag in keys(default_convention)
             tag′= active′ ? tag : get(related_tags, tag, tag)