diff --git a/src/qemu/qemu_command.c b/src/qemu/qemu_command.c
index 5325f48dbb..83105a557e 100644
--- a/src/qemu/qemu_command.c
+++ b/src/qemu/qemu_command.c
@@ -3102,6 +3102,7 @@ qemuBuildMemoryBackendStr(unsigned long long size,
     int ret = -1;
     virJSONValuePtr props = NULL;
     bool nodeSpecified = virDomainNumatuneNodeSpecified(def->numa, guestNode);
+    bool needHugepage = !!pagesize;
 
     *backendProps = NULL;
     *backendType = NULL;
@@ -3124,10 +3125,10 @@ qemuBuildMemoryBackendStr(unsigned long long size,
         mode = VIR_DOMAIN_NUMATUNE_MEM_STRICT;
 
     if (pagesize == 0) {
+        bool thisHugepage = false;
+
         /* Find the huge page size we want to use */
         for (i = 0; i < def->mem.nhugepages; i++) {
-            bool thisHugepage = false;
-
             hugepage = &def->mem.hugepages[i];
 
             if (!hugepage->nodemask) {
@@ -3149,6 +3150,7 @@ qemuBuildMemoryBackendStr(unsigned long long size,
 
             if (thisHugepage) {
                 /* Hooray, we've found the page size */
+                needHugepage = true;
                 break;
             }
         }
@@ -3255,7 +3257,7 @@ qemuBuildMemoryBackendStr(unsigned long long size,
     }
 
     /* If none of the following is requested... */
-    if (!pagesize && !userNodeset && !memAccess && !nodeSpecified && !force) {
+    if (!needHugepage && !userNodeset && !memAccess && !nodeSpecified && !force) {
         /* report back that using the new backend is not necessary
          * to achieve the desired configuration */
         ret = 1;
diff --git a/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/qemuxml2argv-hugepages-pages2.args b/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/qemuxml2argv-hugepages-pages2.args
index 447bb52d00..a37f03d0d2 100644
--- a/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/qemuxml2argv-hugepages-pages2.args
+++ b/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/qemuxml2argv-hugepages-pages2.args
@@ -10,12 +10,10 @@ QEMU_AUDIO_DRV=none \
 -M pc \
 -m 1024 \
 -smp 2,sockets=2,cores=1,threads=1 \
--object memory-backend-file,id=ram-node0,prealloc=yes,\
-mem-path=/dev/hugepages2M/libvirt/qemu,size=268435456 \
--numa node,nodeid=0,cpus=0,memdev=ram-node0 \
--object memory-backend-file,id=ram-node1,prealloc=yes,\
-mem-path=/dev/hugepages2M/libvirt/qemu,size=805306368 \
--numa node,nodeid=1,cpus=1,memdev=ram-node1 \
+-mem-prealloc \
+-mem-path /dev/hugepages2M/libvirt/qemu \
+-numa node,nodeid=0,cpus=0,mem=256 \
+-numa node,nodeid=1,cpus=1,mem=768 \
 -uuid ef1bdff4-27f3-4e85-a807-5fb4d58463cc \
 -nographic \
 -nodefaults \