diff --git a/src/util/virstoragefile.c b/src/util/virstoragefile.c
index b0e87169a3..66cde582fc 100644
--- a/src/util/virstoragefile.c
+++ b/src/util/virstoragefile.c
@@ -4990,7 +4990,8 @@ virStorageFileGetMetadataRecurse(virStorageSourcePtr src,
  * other non-raw format at will.
  *
  * If @report_broken is true, the whole function fails with a possibly sane
- * error instead of just returning a broken chain.
+ * error instead of just returning a broken chain. Note that the inability for
+ * libvirt to traverse a given source is not considered an error.
  *
  * Caller MUST free result after use via virObjectUnref.
  */