diff --git a/archivebox/config.py b/archivebox/config.py
index f42668b9..10a84a48 100644
--- a/archivebox/config.py
+++ b/archivebox/config.py
@@ -288,7 +288,6 @@ DYNAMIC_CONFIG_SCHEMA: ConfigDefaultDict = {
 
     'ARCHIVEBOX_BINARY':        {'default': lambda c: sys.argv[0]},
     'VERSION':                  {'default': lambda c: json.loads((Path(c['PACKAGE_DIR']) / 'package.json').read_text().strip())['version']},
-    'GIT_SHA':                  {'default': lambda c: c['VERSION'].split('+')[-1] or 'unknown'},
 
     'PYTHON_BINARY':            {'default': lambda c: sys.executable},
     'PYTHON_ENCODING':          {'default': lambda c: sys.stdout.encoding.upper()},
diff --git a/archivebox/index/html.py b/archivebox/index/html.py
index ebfe7d78..30922269 100644
--- a/archivebox/index/html.py
+++ b/archivebox/index/html.py
@@ -20,7 +20,6 @@ from ..util import (
 from ..config import (
     OUTPUT_DIR,
     VERSION,
-    GIT_SHA,
     FOOTER_INFO,
     HTML_INDEX_FILENAME,
     SAVE_ARCHIVE_DOT_ORG,
@@ -60,7 +59,7 @@ def main_index_template(links: List[Link], template: str=MAIN_INDEX_TEMPLATE) ->
 
     return render_django_template(template, {
         'version': VERSION,
-        'git_sha': GIT_SHA,
+        'git_sha': VERSION,  # not used anymore, but kept for backwards compatibility
         'num_links': str(len(links)),
         'date_updated': datetime.now().strftime('%Y-%m-%d'),
         'time_updated': datetime.now().strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M'),
diff --git a/archivebox/index/json.py b/archivebox/index/json.py
index f24b969f..441e6854 100644
--- a/archivebox/index/json.py
+++ b/archivebox/index/json.py
@@ -15,7 +15,6 @@ from ..config import (
     VERSION,
     OUTPUT_DIR,
     FOOTER_INFO,
-    GIT_SHA,
     DEPENDENCIES,
     JSON_INDEX_FILENAME,
     ARCHIVE_DIR_NAME,
@@ -30,7 +29,7 @@ MAIN_INDEX_HEADER = {
     'meta': {
         'project': 'ArchiveBox',
         'version': VERSION,
-        'git_sha': GIT_SHA,
+        'git_sha': VERSION,  # not used anymore, but kept for backwards compatibility
         'website': 'https://ArchiveBox.io',
         'docs': 'https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki',
         'source': 'https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox',