diff --git a/docs/schemas/domainsnapshot.rng b/docs/schemas/domainsnapshot.rng
index 2680887095..8863d99578 100644
--- a/docs/schemas/domainsnapshot.rng
+++ b/docs/schemas/domainsnapshot.rng
@@ -103,7 +103,6 @@
 
   <define name='state'>
     <choice>
-      <value>nostate</value>
       <value>running</value>
       <value>blocked</value>
       <value>paused</value>
diff --git a/src/conf/snapshot_conf.c b/src/conf/snapshot_conf.c
index ce543cbaf7..08f335646c 100644
--- a/src/conf/snapshot_conf.c
+++ b/src/conf/snapshot_conf.c
@@ -245,7 +245,7 @@ virDomainSnapshotDefParse(xmlXPathContextPtr ctxt,
             goto cleanup;
         }
         def->state = virDomainSnapshotStateTypeFromString(state);
-        if (def->state < 0) {
+        if (def->state <= 0) {
             virReportError(VIR_ERR_CONFIG_UNSUPPORTED,
                            _("Invalid state '%s' in domain snapshot XML"),
                            state);
@@ -810,8 +810,9 @@ virDomainSnapshotDefFormatInternal(virBufferPtr buf,
     if (def->common.description)
         virBufferEscapeString(buf, "<description>%s</description>\n",
                               def->common.description);
-    virBufferAsprintf(buf, "<state>%s</state>\n",
-                      virDomainSnapshotStateTypeToString(def->state));
+    if (def->state)
+        virBufferAsprintf(buf, "<state>%s</state>\n",
+                          virDomainSnapshotStateTypeToString(def->state));
 
     if (def->common.parent) {
         virBufferAddLit(buf, "<parent>\n");
@@ -821,8 +822,9 @@ virDomainSnapshotDefFormatInternal(virBufferPtr buf,
         virBufferAddLit(buf, "</parent>\n");
     }
 
-    virBufferAsprintf(buf, "<creationTime>%lld</creationTime>\n",
-                      def->common.creationTime);
+    if (def->common.creationTime)
+        virBufferAsprintf(buf, "<creationTime>%lld</creationTime>\n",
+                          def->common.creationTime);
 
     if (def->memory) {
         virBufferAsprintf(buf, "<memory snapshot='%s'",
diff --git a/tests/domainsnapshotxml2xmlout/empty.xml b/tests/domainsnapshotxml2xmlout/empty.xml
index 41538f7b74..0ae32e932a 100644
--- a/tests/domainsnapshotxml2xmlout/empty.xml
+++ b/tests/domainsnapshotxml2xmlout/empty.xml
@@ -1,6 +1,5 @@
 <domainsnapshot>
   <name>1386166249</name>
-  <state>nostate</state>
   <creationTime>1386166249</creationTime>
   <domain>
     <uuid>9d37b878-a7cc-9f9a-b78f-49b3abad25a8</uuid>
diff --git a/tests/domainsnapshotxml2xmlout/name_and_description.xml b/tests/domainsnapshotxml2xmlout/name_and_description.xml
index 435ab79aa9..90ce774741 100644
--- a/tests/domainsnapshotxml2xmlout/name_and_description.xml
+++ b/tests/domainsnapshotxml2xmlout/name_and_description.xml
@@ -1,5 +1,4 @@
 <domainsnapshot>
   <name>snap1</name>
   <description>A longer description!</description>
-  <state>nostate</state>
 </domainsnapshot>
diff --git a/tests/domainsnapshotxml2xmlout/noparent.xml b/tests/domainsnapshotxml2xmlout/noparent.xml
index d4360f0dc1..0cbbb658d8 100644
--- a/tests/domainsnapshotxml2xmlout/noparent.xml
+++ b/tests/domainsnapshotxml2xmlout/noparent.xml
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 <domainsnapshot>
   <name>my snap name</name>
   <description>!@#$%^</description>
-  <state>nostate</state>
+  <state>running</state>
   <creationTime>1272917631</creationTime>
   <memory snapshot='internal'/>
   <domain>
diff --git a/tests/domainsnapshotxml2xmltest.c b/tests/domainsnapshotxml2xmltest.c
index 056219e849..191612d216 100644
--- a/tests/domainsnapshotxml2xmltest.c
+++ b/tests/domainsnapshotxml2xmltest.c
@@ -24,18 +24,17 @@ static virQEMUDriver driver;
 /* This regex will skip the following XML constructs in test files
  * that are dynamically generated and thus problematic to test:
  * <name>1234352345</name> if the snapshot has no name,
- * <creationTime>23523452345</creationTime>,
- * <state>nostate</state> as the backend code doesn't fill this
+ * <creationTime>23523452345</creationTime>
  */
 static const char *testSnapshotXMLVariableLineRegexStr =
-    "(<(name|creationTime)>[0-9]+</(name|creationTime)>|"
-    "<state>nostate</state>)";
+    "<(name|creationTime)>[0-9]+</(name|creationTime)>";
 
 regex_t *testSnapshotXMLVariableLineRegex = NULL;
 
 enum {
     TEST_INTERNAL = 1 << 0, /* Test use of INTERNAL parse/format flag */
     TEST_REDEFINE = 1 << 1, /* Test use of REDEFINE parse flag */
+    TEST_RUNNING = 1 << 2, /* Set snapshot state to running after parse */
 };
 
 static char *
@@ -109,6 +108,11 @@ testCompareXMLToXMLFiles(const char *inxml,
             goto cleanup;
         formatflags |= VIR_DOMAIN_SNAPSHOT_FORMAT_CURRENT;
     }
+    if (flags & TEST_RUNNING) {
+        if (def->state)
+            goto cleanup;
+        def->state = VIR_DOMAIN_RUNNING;
+    }
 
     if (!(actual = virDomainSnapshotDefFormat(uuid, def, driver.caps,
                                               driver.xmlopt,
@@ -222,7 +226,8 @@ mymain(void)
                 0);
 
     DO_TEST_INOUT("empty", "9d37b878-a7cc-9f9a-b78f-49b3abad25a8", 0);
-    DO_TEST_INOUT("noparent", "9d37b878-a7cc-9f9a-b78f-49b3abad25a8", 0);
+    DO_TEST_INOUT("noparent", "9d37b878-a7cc-9f9a-b78f-49b3abad25a8",
+                  TEST_RUNNING);
     DO_TEST_INOUT("external_vm", NULL, 0);
     DO_TEST_INOUT("disk_snapshot", NULL, 0);
     DO_TEST_INOUT("disk_driver_name_null", NULL, 0);