diff --git a/src/libvirt-domain.c b/src/libvirt-domain.c
index ecea5ed5b8..c0372a0b05 100644
--- a/src/libvirt-domain.c
+++ b/src/libvirt-domain.c
@@ -9424,6 +9424,7 @@ virDomainManagedSaveDefineXML(virDomainPtr domain, const char *dxml,
 
     virCheckDomainReturn(domain, -1);
     conn = domain->conn;
+    virCheckReadOnlyGoto(conn->flags, error);
 
     if (conn->driver->domainManagedSaveDefineXML) {
         int ret;