diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 7d89df7e56a..44cc03462ac 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 5.1
+ * Include tools in applyCompatibilityMode to ensure they are not limited in sstable formats they support (CASSANDRA-21196)
  * Harden the possible range of values for max dictionary size and max total sample size for dictionary training (CASSANDRA-21194)
  * Implement a guardrail ensuring that minimum training frequency parameter is provided in ZstdDictionaryCompressor (CASSANDRA-21192)
  * Replace manual referencing with ColumnFamilyStore.selectAndReference when training a dictionary (CASSANDRA-21188)
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/config/DatabaseDescriptor.java b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/config/DatabaseDescriptor.java
index 9999913edd6..971186ffc56 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/config/DatabaseDescriptor.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/config/DatabaseDescriptor.java
@@ -1896,7 +1896,7 @@ private static void validateSSTableFormatFactories(Iterable<SSTableFormat.Factor
 
     private static void applyCompatibilityMode()
     {
-        if (isClientInitialized())
+        if (isClientOrToolInitialized())
             // tools or clients should not limit the sstable formats they support
             storageCompatibilityMode = StorageCompatibilityMode.NONE;
         else if (conf != null && conf.storage_compatibility_mode != null)