diff --git a/softmmu/qdev-monitor.c b/softmmu/qdev-monitor.c
index 12b7540f17..0e10f0466f 100644
--- a/softmmu/qdev-monitor.c
+++ b/softmmu/qdev-monitor.c
@@ -572,28 +572,6 @@ void qdev_set_id(DeviceState *dev, const char *id)
     }
 }
 
-static int is_failover_device(void *opaque, const char *name, const char *value,
-                              Error **errp)
-{
-    if (strcmp(name, "failover_pair_id") == 0) {
-        QemuOpts *opts = opaque;
-
-        if (qdev_should_hide_device(opts)) {
-            return 1;
-        }
-    }
-
-    return 0;
-}
-
-static bool should_hide_device(QemuOpts *opts)
-{
-    if (qemu_opt_foreach(opts, is_failover_device, opts, NULL) == 0) {
-        return false;
-    }
-    return true;
-}
-
 DeviceState *qdev_device_add(QemuOpts *opts, Error **errp)
 {
     DeviceClass *dc;
@@ -634,11 +612,13 @@ DeviceState *qdev_device_add(QemuOpts *opts, Error **errp)
         }
     }
 
-    if (should_hide_device(opts)) {
-        if (bus && !qbus_is_hotpluggable(bus)) {
-            error_setg(errp, QERR_BUS_NO_HOTPLUG, bus->name);
+    if (qemu_opt_get(opts, "failover_pair_id")) {
+        if (qdev_should_hide_device(opts)) {
+            if (bus && !qbus_is_hotpluggable(bus)) {
+                error_setg(errp, QERR_BUS_NO_HOTPLUG, bus->name);
+            }
+            return NULL;
         }
-        return NULL;
     }
 
     if (qdev_hotplug && bus && !qbus_is_hotpluggable(bus)) {