Please describe the problem.

autoenable for special remotes seems has stopped working (didn't check with prev versions though, so it might be just something changed in how repository is setup or smth else)

What version of git-annex are you using? On what operating system?

6.20160902+gitgbc49d8a-1~ndall+1

Please provide any additional information below.

as you can see below autoenable=true is set for that remote, and it enables manually just fine

(venv-tests) % rm -rf fbirn_phaseIII; git clone http://datasets.datalad.org/nidm/fbirn_phaseIII/.git
Cloning into 'fbirn_phaseIII'...
Checking connectivity... done.

(venv-tests) % cd fbirn_phaseIII

(venv-tests) % git annex info
(merging origin/git-annex into git-annex...)
(recording state in git...)
repository mode: indirect
trusted repositories: 0
semitrusted repositories: 6
    00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001 -- web
    00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000002 -- bittorrent
    225f46f1-c353-48ce-89da-ccc94dc59d01 -- yoh@falkor:/srv/datasets.datalad.org/www/nidm/fbirn_phaseIII [origin]
    72ce8ab3-19bd-4cef-95b0-5b150c53edc1 -- datalad-archives
    d3ceb488-0266-4464-985d-4d4a265e4144 -- yoh@smaug:/mnt/datasets/datalad/crawl/nidm/fbirn_phaseIII
    f779a37c-96a5-43b5-822b-0010651dc7b1 -- yoh@hopa:/tmp/autoenable/fbirn_phaseIII [here]
untrusted repositories: 0
transfers in progress: none
available local disk space: 1.2 gigabytes (+1 megabyte reserved)
local annex keys: 0
local annex size: 0 bytes
annexed files in working tree: 7521
size of annexed files in working tree: 2.76 gigabytes
bloom filter size: 32 mebibytes (0% full)
backend usage: 
    MD5E: 7521

(venv-tests) % echo 'git-annex:remote.log' | git cat-file --batch
951989a46d53a17d9a2621f6af82def73c2dc96e blob 328
72ce8ab3-19bd-4cef-95b0-5b150c53edc1 autoenable=true encryption=none externaltype=datalad-archives name=datalad-archives type=external timestamp=1473266618.950662s
72ce8ab3-19bd-4cef-95b0-5b150c53edc1 autoenable=true encryption=none externaltype=datalad-archives name=datalad-archives type=external timestamp=1473444735.988475s

(venv-tests) % git annex enableremote datalad-archives
enableremote datalad-archives ok
(recording state in git...)
(venv-tests) % git annex info                                    
repository mode: indirect
trusted repositories: 0
semitrusted repositories: 6
    00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001 -- web
    00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000002 -- bittorrent
    225f46f1-c353-48ce-89da-ccc94dc59d01 -- yoh@falkor:/srv/datasets.datalad.org/www/nidm/fbirn_phaseIII [origin]
    72ce8ab3-19bd-4cef-95b0-5b150c53edc1 -- [datalad-archives]
    d3ceb488-0266-4464-985d-4d4a265e4144 -- yoh@smaug:/mnt/datasets/datalad/crawl/nidm/fbirn_phaseIII
    f779a37c-96a5-43b5-822b-0010651dc7b1 -- yoh@hopa:/tmp/autoenable/fbirn_phaseIII [here]
untrusted repositories: 0
transfers in progress: none
available local disk space: 1.2 gigabytes (+1 megabyte reserved)
local annex keys: 0
local annex size: 0 bytes
annexed files in working tree: 7521
size of annexed files in working tree: 2.76 gigabytes
bloom filter size: 32 mebibytes (0% full)
backend usage: 
    MD5E: 7521

I am a little confused though since we do test for this scenario in datalad and test still passes, i.e. remote gets enabled...

done, autoinit will now autoenable --Joey