diff --git a/HISTORY.rst b/HISTORY.rst
index c1a8bd227..5febc04a0 100644
--- a/HISTORY.rst
+++ b/HISTORY.rst
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ Release History
 **BugFixes**
 
 - Exclude tests in package deployment (#184)
+- Jupytext's serverextension only runs selected init steps (#185)
 - Added an additional test for magic arguments (#111)
 
 1.0.0 (2019-02-19)
diff --git a/jupytext/__init__.py b/jupytext/__init__.py
index d86ceceb3..91a4781c8 100644
--- a/jupytext/__init__.py
+++ b/jupytext/__init__.py
@@ -30,12 +30,19 @@ def load_jupyter_server_extension(app):  # pragma: no cover
                  'from {} to jupytext.TextFileContentsManager'.format(app.contents_manager_class.__name__))
     app.contents_manager_class = TextFileContentsManager
 
-    # And rerun the init steps from then to now
-    app.init_configurables()
-    app.init_components()
-    app.init_webapp()
-    app.init_terminals()
-    app.init_signal()
+    # And rerun selected init steps from https://github.com/jupyter/notebook/blob/
+    # 132f27306522b32fa667a6b208034cb7a04025c9/notebook/notebookapp.py#L1634-L1638
+
+    # app.init_configurables()
+    app.contents_manager = app.contents_manager_class(parent=app, log=app.log)
+    app.session_manager.contents_manager = app.contents_manager
+
+    # app.init_components()
+    # app.init_webapp()
+    app.web_app.settings['contents_manager'] = app.contents_manager
+
+    # app.init_terminals()
+    # app.init_signal()
 
 
 def _jupyter_nbextension_paths():  # pragma: no cover