diff --git a/include/libvirt/libvirt-domain.h b/include/libvirt/libvirt-domain.h
index 941e67aab1..f5420bca6e 100644
--- a/include/libvirt/libvirt-domain.h
+++ b/include/libvirt/libvirt-domain.h
@@ -4812,6 +4812,10 @@ typedef void (*virConnectDomainEventIOErrorCallback)(virConnectPtr conn,
  * - "enospc": The I/O error is known to be caused by an ENOSPC condition in
  *             the host. Resizing the disk source to be larger will allow the
  *             guest to be resumed as if nothing happened.
+ * - "message": The hypervisor reported a string description of the
+ *              I/O error. The errors are usually logged into the
+ *              domain log file or the last instance of the error
+ *              string can be queried via virDomainGetMessages().
  *
  * Since: 0.8.1
  */
diff --git a/src/qemu/qemu_process.c b/src/qemu/qemu_process.c
index e9342287ab..e7fcb38115 100644
--- a/src/qemu/qemu_process.c
+++ b/src/qemu/qemu_process.c
@@ -862,6 +862,8 @@ qemuProcessHandleIOError(qemuMonitor *mon G_GNUC_UNUSED,
 
     if (nospace)
         eventReason = "enospc";
+    else if (reason)
+        eventReason = "message";
 
     ioErrorEvent = virDomainEventIOErrorNewFromObj(vm, eventPath, eventAlias, action);
     ioErrorEvent2 = virDomainEventIOErrorReasonNewFromObj(vm, eventPath, eventAlias, action, eventReason);