diff --git a/TODO b/TODO
index 6e7a09b197..82fdfcd9f4 100644
--- a/TODO
+++ b/TODO
@@ -11,15 +11,6 @@ Required for v1.2
     * validate() on a field
         * name/purpose clash with Honza?
         * any overlap with existing methods?
- * Check test failures with old-style (non-multi-db) settings file
-    * custom_pk
-    * backends
- * Check test failures with MySQL MyISAM
-    * serializers_regress
-    * fixtures
-    * lookup
-    * transactions
-    * model_regress
 
 Optional for v1.2
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
diff --git a/django/db/__init__.py b/django/db/__init__.py
index a31c2bd6fc..358b431457 100644
--- a/django/db/__init__.py
+++ b/django/db/__init__.py
@@ -17,19 +17,9 @@ if not settings.DATABASES:
         "settings.DATABASE_* is deprecated; use settings.DATABASES instead.",
         PendingDeprecationWarning
     )
-    
-    if settings.DATABASE_ENGINE in ("postgresql", "postgresql_psycopg2",
-        "sqlite3", "mysql", "oracle"):
-        engine = "django.db.backends.%s" % settings.DATABASE_ENGINE
-        warnings.warn(
-            "Short names for DATABASE_ENGINE are deprecated; prepend with 'django.db.backends.'",
-            PendingDeprecationWarning
-        )
-    else:
-        engine = settings.DATABASE_ENGINE
 
     settings.DATABASES[DEFAULT_DB_ALIAS] = {
-        'ENGINE': engine,
+        'ENGINE': settings.DATABASE_ENGINE,
         'HOST': settings.DATABASE_HOST,
         'NAME': settings.DATABASE_NAME,
         'OPTIONS': settings.DATABASE_OPTIONS,
@@ -44,6 +34,15 @@ if not settings.DATABASES:
 if DEFAULT_DB_ALIAS not in settings.DATABASES:
     raise ImproperlyConfigured("You must default a '%s' database" % DEFAULT_DB_ALIAS)
 
+for database in settings.DATABASES.values():
+    if database['ENGINE'] in ("postgresql", "postgresql_psycopg2", "sqlite3", "mysql", "oracle"):
+        database['ENGINE'] = "django.db.backends.%s" % database['ENGINE']
+        import warnings
+        warnings.warn(
+            "Short names for DATABASE_ENGINE are deprecated; prepend with 'django.db.backends.'",
+            PendingDeprecationWarning
+        )
+
 connections = ConnectionHandler(settings.DATABASES)
 
 
diff --git a/django/db/utils.py b/django/db/utils.py
index 087c414ae6..75ac5726ca 100644
--- a/django/db/utils.py
+++ b/django/db/utils.py
@@ -6,7 +6,13 @@ from django.utils.importlib import import_module
 
 def load_backend(backend_name):
     try:
-        return import_module('.base', 'django.db.backends.%s' % backend_name)
+        module = import_module('.base', 'django.db.backends.%s' % backend_name)
+        import warnings
+        warnings.warn(
+            "Short names for DATABASE_ENGINE are deprecated; prepend with 'django.db.backends.'",
+            PendingDeprecationWarning
+        )
+        return module
     except ImportError, e:
         # Look for a fully qualified database backend name
         try: