diff --git a/gnu/packages/gnome.scm b/gnu/packages/gnome.scm
index 3081664030..4e44145ed8 100644
--- a/gnu/packages/gnome.scm
+++ b/gnu/packages/gnome.scm
@@ -5508,7 +5508,11 @@ (define-public upower
 listening to device events and querying history and statistics.  Any
 application or service on the system can access the org.freedesktop.UPower
 service via the system message bus.")
-    (license license:gpl2+)))
+    (license license:gpl2+)
+    ;; Old versions of upower are tagged as UPOWER_0_99_13, which confuses
+    ;; the 'generic-git' updater.  Give it a little help.
+    (properties '((release-tag-prefix . "v")
+                  (release-tag-version-delimiter . ".")))))
 
 (define-public libgweather
   (package