diff --git a/src/storage_file/storage_file_probe.c b/src/storage_file/storage_file_probe.c
index 16298f76c7..243927d50a 100644
--- a/src/storage_file/storage_file_probe.c
+++ b/src/storage_file/storage_file_probe.c
@@ -474,9 +474,15 @@ qcow2GetExtensions(const char *buf,
             memcpy(tmp, buf + offset, len);
             tmp[len] = '\0';
 
+            /* qemu and qemu-img allow using the protocol driver name inside
+             * of the format field in cases when the dummy 'raw' driver should
+             * not be created. Thus libvirt needs to consider anything that
+             * doesn't look like a format driver name to be a protocol driver
+             * directly and thus the image is in fact still considered raw
+             */
             *backingFormat = virStorageFileFormatTypeFromString(tmp);
             if (*backingFormat <= VIR_STORAGE_FILE_NONE)
-                return -1;
+                *backingFormat = VIR_STORAGE_FILE_RAW;
             break;
         }
 
diff --git a/tests/virstoragetest.c b/tests/virstoragetest.c
index 53533d5885..d07a05d04b 100644
--- a/tests/virstoragetest.c
+++ b/tests/virstoragetest.c
@@ -484,7 +484,7 @@ mymain(void)
                VIR_STORAGE_FILE_QCOW2, EXP_PASS);
     TEST_CHAIN("qcow2-protocol-backing-nbd",
                abs_srcdir "/virstoragetestdata/images/qcow2-protocol-backing-nbd.qcow2",
-               VIR_STORAGE_FILE_QCOW2, EXP_FAIL);
+               VIR_STORAGE_FILE_QCOW2, EXP_PASS);
 
     /* Qcow2 file with missing backing file but specified type */
     TEST_CHAIN("qcow2-qcow2_missing",
diff --git a/tests/virstoragetestdata/out/qcow2-protocol-backing-file b/tests/virstoragetestdata/out/qcow2-protocol-backing-file
index b565bdba77..d9d4c1316c 100644
--- a/tests/virstoragetestdata/out/qcow2-protocol-backing-file
+++ b/tests/virstoragetestdata/out/qcow2-protocol-backing-file
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 path:ABS_SRCDIR/virstoragetestdata/images/qcow2-protocol-backing-file.qcow2
 backingStoreRaw: raw
-backingStoreRawFormat: <null>(-1)
+backingStoreRawFormat: raw(1)
 capacity: 1024
 encryption: 0
 relPath:<null>
diff --git a/tests/virstoragetestdata/out/qcow2-protocol-backing-nbd b/tests/virstoragetestdata/out/qcow2-protocol-backing-nbd
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..360a496ab0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/virstoragetestdata/out/qcow2-protocol-backing-nbd
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+path:ABS_SRCDIR/virstoragetestdata/images/qcow2-protocol-backing-nbd.qcow2
+backingStoreRaw: nbd+tcp://example.org:6000/blah
+backingStoreRawFormat: raw(1)
+capacity: 10485760
+encryption: 0
+relPath:<null>
+type:file
+format:qcow2
+protocol:none
+hostname:<null>
+
+path:blah
+backingStoreRaw: <null>
+backingStoreRawFormat: none(0)
+capacity: 0
+encryption: 0
+relPath:<null>
+type:network
+format:raw
+protocol:nbd
+hostname:example.org