diff --git a/src/qemu/qemu_command.c b/src/qemu/qemu_command.c
index fbf8f0fa53..489b15a283 100644
--- a/src/qemu/qemu_command.c
+++ b/src/qemu/qemu_command.c
@@ -5138,9 +5138,7 @@ qemuBuildHostdevMediatedDevStr(const virDomainDef *def,
     g_autofree char *mdevPath = NULL;
     const char *dev_str = NULL;
 
-    if (!(mdevPath = virMediatedDeviceGetSysfsPath(mdevsrc->uuidstr)))
-        return NULL;
-
+    mdevPath = virMediatedDeviceGetSysfsPath(mdevsrc->uuidstr);
     dev_str = qemuBuildHostdevMdevModelTypeString(mdevsrc);
 
     if (!dev_str)
diff --git a/src/util/virmdev.c b/src/util/virmdev.c
index 7f4a499536..5f112c775f 100644
--- a/src/util/virmdev.c
+++ b/src/util/virmdev.c
@@ -140,9 +140,7 @@ virMediatedDeviceNew(const char *uuidstr, virMediatedDeviceModelType model)
     g_autoptr(virMediatedDevice) dev = NULL;
     g_autofree char *sysfspath = NULL;
 
-    if (!(sysfspath = virMediatedDeviceGetSysfsPath(uuidstr)))
-        return NULL;
-
+    sysfspath = virMediatedDeviceGetSysfsPath(uuidstr);
     if (!virFileExists(sysfspath)) {
         virReportError(VIR_ERR_DEVICE_MISSING,
                        _("mediated device '%s' not found"), uuidstr);
@@ -208,9 +206,6 @@ virMediatedDeviceGetIOMMUGroupDev(const char *uuidstr)
     g_autofree char *iommu_path = NULL;
     g_autofree char *dev_path = virMediatedDeviceGetSysfsPath(uuidstr);
 
-    if (!dev_path)
-        return NULL;
-
     iommu_path = g_strdup_printf("%s/iommu_group", dev_path);
 
     if (!virFileExists(iommu_path)) {