diff --git a/src/transformers/models/auto/auto_factory.py b/src/transformers/models/auto/auto_factory.py
index d322f83668..5519d82e7a 100644
--- a/src/transformers/models/auto/auto_factory.py
+++ b/src/transformers/models/auto/auto_factory.py
@@ -418,7 +418,7 @@ class _BaseAutoModelClass:
             else:
                 repo_id = config.name_or_path
             model_class = get_class_from_dynamic_module(class_ref, repo_id, **kwargs)
-            cls._model_mapping.register(config.__class__, model_class, exist_ok=True)
+            cls.register(config.__class__, model_class, exist_ok=True)
             _ = kwargs.pop("code_revision", None)
             return model_class._from_config(config, **kwargs)
         elif type(config) in cls._model_mapping.keys():
@@ -477,7 +477,7 @@ class _BaseAutoModelClass:
                 class_ref, pretrained_model_name_or_path, **hub_kwargs, **kwargs
             )
             _ = hub_kwargs.pop("code_revision", None)
-            cls._model_mapping.register(config.__class__, model_class, exist_ok=True)
+            cls.register(config.__class__, model_class, exist_ok=True)
             return model_class.from_pretrained(
                 pretrained_model_name_or_path, *model_args, config=config, **hub_kwargs, **kwargs
             )