diff --git a/docs/compiling.rst b/docs/compiling.rst
index 3de638cfd..25b703e34 100644
--- a/docs/compiling.rst
+++ b/docs/compiling.rst
@@ -264,8 +264,15 @@ As stated above, LTO is enabled by default. Some newer compilers also support
 different flavors of LTO such as `ThinLTO`_. Setting ``THIN_LTO`` will cause
 the function to prefer this flavor if available. The function falls back to
 regular LTO if ``-flto=thin`` is not available. If
-``CMAKE_INTERPROCEDURAL_OPTIMIZATION`` is set (either ON or OFF), then that
-will be respected instead of the built-in flag search.
+``CMAKE_INTERPROCEDURAL_OPTIMIZATION`` is set (either ``ON`` or ``OFF``), then
+that will be respected instead of the built-in flag search.
+
+.. note::
+
+   If you want to set the property form on targets or the
+   ``CMAKE_INTERPROCEDURAL_OPTIMIZATION_<CONFIG>`` versions of this, you should
+   still use ``set(CMAKE_INTERPROCEDURAL_OPTIMIZATION OFF)`` (otherwise a
+   no-op) to disable pybind11's ipo flags.
 
 The ``OPT_SIZE`` flag enables size-based optimization equivalent to the
 standard ``/Os`` or ``-Os`` compiler flags and the ``MinSizeRel`` build type,
diff --git a/tools/pybind11Common.cmake b/tools/pybind11Common.cmake
index 8ee22deca..d9317d03a 100644
--- a/tools/pybind11Common.cmake
+++ b/tools/pybind11Common.cmake
@@ -327,7 +327,9 @@ function(_pybind11_generate_lto target prefer_thin_lto)
 
   # Enable LTO flags if found, except for Debug builds
   if(PYBIND11_LTO_CXX_FLAGS)
-    set(not_debug "$<NOT:$<CONFIG:Debug>>")
+    # CONFIG takes multiple values in CMake 3.19+, until then we have to use OR
+    set(is_debug "$<OR:$<CONFIG:Debug>,$<CONFIG:RelWithDebInfo>>")
+    set(not_debug "$<NOT:${is_debug}>")
     set(cxx_lang "$<COMPILE_LANGUAGE:CXX>")
     if(MSVC AND CMAKE_VERSION VERSION_LESS 3.11)
       set(genex "${not_debug}")