diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index abfe0559..a9eba045 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 Changelog
 =========
 # 0.49.2-SNAPSHOT / TBC
+* [BUGFIX] Telemetry is no longer initialized when telemetry is disabled [#522][]
 
 # 0.49.1 / 2024-04-09
 * [FEATURE] Add ZGC Major and Minor Cycles and ZGC Major and Minor Pauses beans support out of the box (Generational ZGC support) [#509][]
@@ -767,6 +768,7 @@ Changelog
 [#477]: https://github.com/DataDog/jmxfetch/issues/477
 [#509]: https://github.com/DataDog/jmxfetch/issues/509
 [#512]: https://github.com/DataDog/jmxfetch/pull/512
+[#522]: https://github.com/DataDog/jmxfetch/pull/522
 [@alz]: https://github.com/alz
 [@aoking]: https://github.com/aoking
 [@arrawatia]: https://github.com/arrawatia
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/datadog/jmxfetch/App.java b/src/main/java/org/datadog/jmxfetch/App.java
index 8c78e8ac..6ae7934a 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/datadog/jmxfetch/App.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/datadog/jmxfetch/App.java
@@ -133,14 +133,14 @@ public App(final AppConfig appConfig) {
         }
         this.configs = getConfigs(this.appConfig);
 
-        this.initTelemetryBean();
+        if (this.appConfig.getJmxfetchTelemetry()) {
+            this.initTelemetryBean();
+        }
     }
 
     private ObjectName getAppTelemetryBeanName() {
-        ObjectName appTelemetryBeanName;
-
         try {
-            appTelemetryBeanName = new ObjectName(
+            return new ObjectName(
                 appConfig.getJmxfetchTelemetryDomain() + ":name=jmxfetch_app");
         } catch (MalformedObjectNameException e) {
             log.warn(
@@ -149,8 +149,6 @@ private ObjectName getAppTelemetryBeanName() {
                 appConfig.getJmxfetchTelemetryDomain());
             return null;
         }
-
-        return appTelemetryBeanName;
     }
 
     private void initTelemetryBean() {
@@ -163,16 +161,15 @@ private void initTelemetryBean() {
 
         try {
             mbs.registerMBean(bean, appTelemetryBeanName);
-            log.debug("Succesfully registered app telemetry bean");
+            log.debug("Successfully registered app telemetry bean");
         } catch (InstanceAlreadyExistsException
          | MBeanRegistrationException
          | NotCompliantMBeanException e) {
             log.warn("Could not register bean named '{}' for instance: ",
-                appTelemetryBeanName.toString(), e);
+                appTelemetryBeanName, e);
         }
 
         this.appTelemetry = bean;
-        return;
     }
 
     private void teardownTelemetry() {
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/datadog/jmxfetch/AppConfig.java b/src/main/java/org/datadog/jmxfetch/AppConfig.java
index a01ff561..042d2647 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/datadog/jmxfetch/AppConfig.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/datadog/jmxfetch/AppConfig.java
@@ -128,7 +128,8 @@ public class AppConfig {
     @Parameter(
             names = {"--jmxfetch_telemetry", "-jt"},
             description = "Enable additional jmxfetch telemetry reporting",
-            required = false)
+            required = false) /* Do not default to true as this affects embedded mode where
+            customers can have custom MBean managers */
     private boolean jmxfetchTelemetry;
 
     @Parameter(
diff --git a/src/test/java/org/datadog/jmxfetch/TestApp.java b/src/test/java/org/datadog/jmxfetch/TestApp.java
index 5fec8d25..a46b0c26 100644
--- a/src/test/java/org/datadog/jmxfetch/TestApp.java
+++ b/src/test/java/org/datadog/jmxfetch/TestApp.java
@@ -22,6 +22,9 @@ public class TestApp extends TestCommon {
     /** Tag metrics with MBean parameters based on user supplied regex */
     @Test
     public void testBeanRegexTags() throws Exception {
+        // When we enable JMXFetch telemetry
+        when(appConfig.getJmxfetchTelemetry()).thenReturn(true);
+
         // We expose a few metrics through JMX
         registerMBean(
                 new SimpleTestJavaApp(),
@@ -53,6 +56,9 @@ public void testBeanRegexTags() throws Exception {
     /** Tag metrics with MBeans parameters. */
     @Test
     public void testBeanTags() throws Exception {
+        // When we enable JMXFetch telemetry
+        when(appConfig.getJmxfetchTelemetry()).thenReturn(true);
+
         // We expose a few metrics through JMX
         registerMBean(
                 new SimpleTestJavaApp(),
diff --git a/src/test/java/org/datadog/jmxfetch/TestCommon.java b/src/test/java/org/datadog/jmxfetch/TestCommon.java
index ff0bf445..42a5080d 100644
--- a/src/test/java/org/datadog/jmxfetch/TestCommon.java
+++ b/src/test/java/org/datadog/jmxfetch/TestCommon.java
@@ -73,7 +73,7 @@ public static void init() throws Exception {
         if (level == null) {
             level = "ALL";
         }
-        CustomLogger.setup(LogLevel.ALL, "/tmp/jmxfetch_test.log", false);
+        CustomLogger.setup(LogLevel.fromString(level), "/tmp/jmxfetch_test.log", false);
     }
 
     /**
@@ -152,6 +152,7 @@ protected void initApplication(String yamlFileName, String autoDiscoveryPipeFile
             params.add(5, "/foo"); // could be anything we're stubbing it out
             params.add(6, "--sd_enabled");
         }
+
         new JCommander(appConfig, params.toArray(new String[params.size()]));
 
         if (sdEnabled) {