diff --git a/tests/qemusecuritytest.c b/tests/qemusecuritytest.c
index 0596783b6c..e2989c05aa 100644
--- a/tests/qemusecuritytest.c
+++ b/tests/qemusecuritytest.c
@@ -64,6 +64,8 @@ prepareObjects(virQEMUDriver *driver,
     if (!(priv->qemuCaps = qemuTestParseCapabilitiesArch(VIR_ARCH_X86_64, latestCapsFile)))
         return -1;
 
+    virFileCacheClear(driver->qemuCapsCache);
+
     if (qemuTestCapsCacheInsert(driver->qemuCapsCache, priv->qemuCaps) < 0)
         return -1;
 
diff --git a/tests/qemustatusxml2xmltest.c b/tests/qemustatusxml2xmltest.c
index 408955a8f5..c689ab3b03 100644
--- a/tests/qemustatusxml2xmltest.c
+++ b/tests/qemustatusxml2xmltest.c
@@ -26,6 +26,8 @@ testCompareStatusXMLToXMLFiles(const void *opaque)
     if (testQemuInfoInitArgs((struct testQemuInfo *) data) < 0)
         return -1;
 
+    virFileCacheClear(driver.qemuCapsCache);
+
     if (qemuTestCapsCacheInsert(driver.qemuCapsCache, data->qemuCaps) < 0)
         return -1;
 
diff --git a/tests/qemuxml2argvtest.c b/tests/qemuxml2argvtest.c
index 6f2ac9ee2a..fc0f7830a9 100644
--- a/tests/qemuxml2argvtest.c
+++ b/tests/qemuxml2argvtest.c
@@ -664,6 +664,8 @@ testCompareXMLToArgv(const void *data)
             goto cleanup;
     }
 
+    virFileCacheClear(driver.qemuCapsCache);
+
     if (info->args.hostOS == HOST_OS_MACOS)
         rc = qemuTestCapsCacheInsertMacOS(driver.qemuCapsCache, info->qemuCaps);
     else
diff --git a/tests/qemuxml2xmltest.c b/tests/qemuxml2xmltest.c
index 05a94dbf4f..28ece10349 100644
--- a/tests/qemuxml2xmltest.c
+++ b/tests/qemuxml2xmltest.c
@@ -44,6 +44,8 @@ testXML2XMLCommon(const struct testQemuInfo *info)
     if (!(info->flags & FLAG_REAL_CAPS))
         virQEMUCapsInitQMPBasicArch(info->qemuCaps);
 
+    virFileCacheClear(driver.qemuCapsCache);
+
     if (info->args.hostOS == HOST_OS_MACOS)
         rc = qemuTestCapsCacheInsertMacOS(driver.qemuCapsCache, info->qemuCaps);
     else
diff --git a/tests/testutilsqemu.c b/tests/testutilsqemu.c
index d715252aee..e15130492e 100644
--- a/tests/testutilsqemu.c
+++ b/tests/testutilsqemu.c
@@ -527,17 +527,16 @@ qemuTestCapsCacheInsertImpl(virFileCache *cache,
     size_t i;
 
     if (caps && virQEMUCapsGetArch(caps) != VIR_ARCH_NONE) {
-        /* for capabilities which have architecture set we populate only the
-         * given architecture and poison all other so that the test doesn't
-         * accidentally test a weird combination */
+        /* all tests using real caps or arcitecture are expected to call:
+         *
+         *  virFileCacheClear(driver.qemuCapsCache);
+         *
+         * before populating the cache;
+         */
         virArch arch = virQEMUCapsGetArch(caps);
-        g_autoptr(virQEMUCaps) emptyCaps = virQEMUCapsNew();
         g_autoptr(virQEMUCaps) copyCaps = NULL;
         virQEMUCaps *effCaps = caps;
 
-        if (!emptyCaps)
-            return -1;
-
         if (arch_alias[arch] != VIR_ARCH_NONE)
             arch = arch_alias[arch];
 
@@ -553,18 +552,6 @@ qemuTestCapsCacheInsertImpl(virFileCache *cache,
             if (qemuTestCapsCacheInsertData(cache, qemu_emulators[arch], effCaps) < 0)
                 return -1;
         }
-
-
-        for (i = 0; i < G_N_ELEMENTS(qemu_emulators); i++) {
-            if (!qemu_emulators[i])
-                continue;
-
-            if (i == arch)
-                continue;
-
-            if (qemuTestCapsCacheInsertData(cache, qemu_emulators[i], emptyCaps) < 0)
-                return -1;
-        }
     } else {
         /* in case when caps are missing or are missing architecture, we populate
          * everything */