diff --git a/tests/testutilsqemu.c b/tests/testutilsqemu.c
index b75241d545..40c2cb8bba 100644
--- a/tests/testutilsqemu.c
+++ b/tests/testutilsqemu.c
@@ -931,14 +931,14 @@ testQemuGetRealCaps(const char *arch,
             return NULL;
         }
 
+        if (stripmachinealiases)
+            virQEMUCapsStripMachineAliases(cachedcaps);
+
         g_hash_table_insert(capsCache, g_strdup(capsfile), cachedcaps);
     }
 
     ret = virQEMUCapsNewCopy(cachedcaps);
 
-    if (stripmachinealiases)
-        virQEMUCapsStripMachineAliases(ret);
-
     /* strip 'xml' suffix so that we can format the file to '.replies' */
     capsfile[strlen(capsfile) - 3] = '\0';