diff --git a/telethon/_misc/helpers.py b/telethon/_misc/helpers.py
index a3480007..c6c76b8e 100644
--- a/telethon/_misc/helpers.py
+++ b/telethon/_misc/helpers.py
@@ -102,23 +102,11 @@ def strip_text(text, entities):
     return text
 
 
-def retry_range(retries, force_retry=True):
+def retry_range(retries):
     """
-    Generates an integer sequence starting from 1. If `retries` is
-    not a zero or a positive integer value, the sequence will be
-    infinite, otherwise it will end at `retries + 1`.
+    Generates an integer sequence starting from 1, always returning once, and adding the given retries.
     """
-
-    # We need at least one iteration even if the retries are 0
-    # when force_retry is True.
-    if force_retry and not (retries is None or retries < 0):
-        retries += 1
-
-    attempt = 0
-    while attempt != retries:
-        attempt += 1
-        yield attempt
-
+    return range(1, max(retries, 0) + 2)
 
 
 async def _maybe_await(value):
diff --git a/telethon/_network/mtprotosender.py b/telethon/_network/mtprotosender.py
index fb6650ce..84f2b2c0 100644
--- a/telethon/_network/mtprotosender.py
+++ b/telethon/_network/mtprotosender.py
@@ -249,9 +249,9 @@ class MTProtoSender:
             break  # all steps done, break retry loop
         else:
             if not connected:
-                raise ConnectionError('Connection to Telegram failed {} time(s)'.format(self._retries))
+                raise ConnectionError('Connection to Telegram failed {} time(s)'.format(1 + self._retries))
 
-            e = ConnectionError('auth_key generation failed {} time(s)'.format(self._retries))
+            e = ConnectionError('auth_key generation failed {} time(s)'.format(1 + self._retries))
             await self._disconnect(error=e)
             raise e
 
@@ -349,12 +349,11 @@ class MTProtoSender:
         # Start with a clean state (and thus session ID) to avoid old msgs
         self._state.reset()
 
-        retries = self._retries if self._auto_reconnect else 0
+        retry_range = helpers.retry_range(self._retries) if self._auto_reconnect else range(0)
 
         attempt = 0
         ok = True
-        # We're already "retrying" to connect, so we don't want to force retries
-        for attempt in helpers.retry_range(retries, force_retry=False):
+        for attempt in retry_range:
             try:
                 await self._connect()
             except (IOError, asyncio.TimeoutError) as e: