diff --git a/hw/net/virtio-net.c b/hw/net/virtio-net.c
index 83642c85b2..3dd2896ff9 100644
--- a/hw/net/virtio-net.c
+++ b/hw/net/virtio-net.c
@@ -3299,7 +3299,17 @@ static bool failover_hide_primary_device(DeviceListener *listener,
     if (!device_opts) {
         return false;
     }
-    standby_id = qdict_get_try_str(device_opts, "failover_pair_id");
+
+    if (!qdict_haskey(device_opts, "failover_pair_id")) {
+        return false;
+    }
+
+    if (!qdict_haskey(device_opts, "id")) {
+        error_setg(errp, "Device with failover_pair_id needs to have id");
+        return false;
+    }
+
+    standby_id = qdict_get_str(device_opts, "failover_pair_id");
     if (g_strcmp0(standby_id, n->netclient_name) != 0) {
         return false;
     }
diff --git a/softmmu/qdev-monitor.c b/softmmu/qdev-monitor.c
index 89c473cb22..4851de51a5 100644
--- a/softmmu/qdev-monitor.c
+++ b/softmmu/qdev-monitor.c
@@ -639,19 +639,13 @@ DeviceState *qdev_device_add_from_qdict(const QDict *opts,
         }
     }
 
-    if (qdict_haskey(opts, "failover_pair_id")) {
-        if (!qdict_haskey(opts, "id")) {
-            error_setg(errp, "Device with failover_pair_id don't have id");
-            return NULL;
-        }
-        if (qdev_should_hide_device(opts, from_json, errp)) {
-            if (bus && !qbus_is_hotpluggable(bus)) {
-                error_setg(errp, QERR_BUS_NO_HOTPLUG, bus->name);
-            }
-            return NULL;
-        } else if (*errp) {
-            return NULL;
+    if (qdev_should_hide_device(opts, from_json, errp)) {
+        if (bus && !qbus_is_hotpluggable(bus)) {
+            error_setg(errp, QERR_BUS_NO_HOTPLUG, bus->name);
         }
+        return NULL;
+    } else if (*errp) {
+        return NULL;
     }
 
     if (phase_check(PHASE_MACHINE_READY) && bus && !qbus_is_hotpluggable(bus)) {