diff --git a/gfx/thebes/gfxPlatform.cpp b/gfx/thebes/gfxPlatform.cpp
index ddb50f13d8f4..130f859ff694 100644
--- a/gfx/thebes/gfxPlatform.cpp
+++ b/gfx/thebes/gfxPlatform.cpp
@@ -2505,6 +2505,12 @@ gfxPlatform::InitOpenGLConfig()
   if (!IsGfxInfoStatusOkay(nsIGfxInfo::FEATURE_OPENGL_LAYERS, &message, failureId)) {
     openGLFeature.Disable(FeatureStatus::Blacklisted, message.get(), failureId);
   }
+
+  // Ensure that an accelerated compositor backend is available when layers
+  // acceleration is force-enabled.
+  if (gfxPrefs::LayersAccelerationForceEnabledDoNotUseDirectly()) {
+    openGLFeature.UserForceEnable("Force-enabled by pref");
+  }
 }
 
 bool