diff --git a/src/qemu/qemu_process.c b/src/qemu/qemu_process.c
index a588ee25f8..3083d0b538 100644
--- a/src/qemu/qemu_process.c
+++ b/src/qemu/qemu_process.c
@@ -5531,7 +5531,8 @@ qemuProcessInit(virQEMUDriverPtr driver,
     if (vm->def->postParseFailed) {
         VIR_DEBUG("re-running the post parse callback");
 
-        if (virDomainDefPostParse(vm->def, caps, 0, driver->xmlopt, priv->qemuCaps) < 0)
+        /* we don't have the private copy of qemuCaps at this point */
+        if (virDomainDefPostParse(vm->def, caps, 0, driver->xmlopt, NULL) < 0)
             goto cleanup;
     }