diff --git a/src/whisper.cpp b/src/whisper.cpp
index 771c1149c..dd8bd9378 100644
--- a/src/whisper.cpp
+++ b/src/whisper.cpp
@@ -4149,12 +4149,14 @@ const char * whisper_lang_str_full(int id) {
     return nullptr;
 }
 
-int whisper_lang_auto_detect_with_state(
+static int whisper_lang_auto_detect_internal(
         struct whisper_context * ctx,
           struct whisper_state * state,
                            int   offset_ms,
                            int   n_threads,
-                         float * lang_probs) {
+                         float * lang_probs,
+           ggml_abort_callback   abort_callback,
+                          void * abort_callback_data) {
     const int seek = offset_ms/10;
 
     if (seek < 0) {
@@ -4168,14 +4170,18 @@ int whisper_lang_auto_detect_with_state(
     }
 
     // run the encoder
-    if (whisper_encode_with_state(ctx, state, seek, n_threads) != 0) {
+    if (!whisper_encode_internal(*ctx, *state, seek, n_threads, abort_callback, abort_callback_data)) {
         WHISPER_LOG_ERROR("%s: failed to encode\n", __func__);
         return -6;
     }
 
     const std::vector<whisper_token> prompt = { whisper_token_sot(ctx) };
 
-    if (whisper_decode_with_state(ctx, state, prompt.data(), prompt.size(), 0, n_threads) != 0) {
+    whisper_batch_prep_legacy(state->batch, prompt.data(), prompt.size(), 0, 0);
+
+    whisper_kv_cache_seq_rm(state->kv_self, 0, 0, -1);
+
+    if (!whisper_decode_internal(*ctx, *state, state->batch, n_threads, false, abort_callback, abort_callback_data)) {
         WHISPER_LOG_ERROR("%s: failed to decode\n", __func__);
         return -7;
     }
@@ -4224,6 +4230,15 @@ int whisper_lang_auto_detect_with_state(
     return logits_id[0].second;
 }
 
+int whisper_lang_auto_detect_with_state(
+        struct whisper_context * ctx,
+          struct whisper_state * state,
+                           int   offset_ms,
+                           int   n_threads,
+                         float * lang_probs) {
+    return whisper_lang_auto_detect_internal(ctx, state, offset_ms, n_threads, lang_probs, nullptr, nullptr);
+}
+
 int whisper_lang_auto_detect(
         struct whisper_context * ctx,
                            int   offset_ms,
@@ -6977,7 +6992,7 @@ int whisper_full_with_state(
             }
         }
 
-        const auto lang_id = whisper_lang_auto_detect_with_state(ctx, state, 0, params.n_threads, probs.data());
+        const auto lang_id = whisper_lang_auto_detect_internal(ctx, state, 0, params.n_threads, probs.data(), params.abort_callback, params.abort_callback_user_data);
         if (lang_id < 0) {
             WHISPER_LOG_ERROR("%s: failed to auto-detect language\n", __func__);
             return -3;
diff --git a/tests/CMakeLists.txt b/tests/CMakeLists.txt
index 57bfb51b6..ab4acfac7 100644
--- a/tests/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/tests/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -113,6 +113,16 @@ target_compile_definitions(${ZERO_SAMPLES_TEST} PRIVATE
 add_test(NAME ${ZERO_SAMPLES_TEST} COMMAND ${ZERO_SAMPLES_TEST})
 set_tests_properties(${ZERO_SAMPLES_TEST} PROPERTIES LABELS "tiny;gh")
 
+# abort_callback must be honored during language auto-detection (#3888)
+set(LANG_DETECT_ABORT_TEST test-whisper-lang-detect-abort)
+add_executable(${LANG_DETECT_ABORT_TEST} ${LANG_DETECT_ABORT_TEST}.cpp)
+target_include_directories(${LANG_DETECT_ABORT_TEST} PRIVATE ../include ../ggml/include ../examples)
+target_link_libraries(${LANG_DETECT_ABORT_TEST} PRIVATE common)
+target_compile_definitions(${LANG_DETECT_ABORT_TEST} PRIVATE
+    WHISPER_MODEL_PATH="${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/models/for-tests-ggml-tiny.bin")
+add_test(NAME ${LANG_DETECT_ABORT_TEST} COMMAND ${LANG_DETECT_ABORT_TEST})
+set_tests_properties(${LANG_DETECT_ABORT_TEST} PROPERTIES LABELS "tiny;gh")
+
 # VAD test tests VAD in isolation
 set(VAD_TEST test-vad)
 add_executable(${VAD_TEST} ${VAD_TEST}.cpp)
diff --git a/tests/test-whisper-lang-detect-abort.cpp b/tests/test-whisper-lang-detect-abort.cpp
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..ba362062a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test-whisper-lang-detect-abort.cpp
@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+#include "whisper.h"
+
+#include <cstdio>
+#include <vector>
+
+#ifdef NDEBUG
+#undef NDEBUG
+#endif
+#include <cassert>
+
+static int n_encoder_begin = 0;
+
+static bool encoder_begin_cb(struct whisper_context *, struct whisper_state *, void *) {
+    n_encoder_begin++;
+    return true; // don't block anything, just count
+}
+
+static bool abort_cb(void *) {
+    return true; // abort immediately
+}
+
+int main() {
+    ggml_backend_load_all();
+
+    struct whisper_context_params cparams = whisper_context_default_params();
+    cparams.use_gpu = false;
+
+    struct whisper_context * ctx = whisper_init_from_file_with_params(WHISPER_MODEL_PATH, cparams);
+    assert(ctx != nullptr);
+
+    std::vector<float> pcmf32(2*WHISPER_SAMPLE_RATE, 0.0f);   // 2 s of silence
+
+    struct whisper_full_params params = whisper_full_default_params(WHISPER_SAMPLING_GREEDY);
+    params.language       = "auto";
+    params.print_progress = false;
+    params.print_realtime = false;
+
+    params.encoder_begin_callback = encoder_begin_cb;
+    params.abort_callback         = abort_cb;
+
+    const int rc = whisper_full(ctx, params, pcmf32.data(), pcmf32.size());
+
+    assert(rc != 0);                // the call must fail because we aborted
+    assert(n_encoder_begin == 1);   // aborted during auto-detect: main-loop encoder never started
+
+    whisper_free(ctx);
+
+    printf("test-whisper-lang-detect-abort: OK\n");
+    return 0;
+}