diff --git a/migration/migration.c b/migration/migration.c
index 2057e42134..57f9e9ed0c 100644
--- a/migration/migration.c
+++ b/migration/migration.c
@@ -1060,9 +1060,6 @@ static void fill_source_migration_info(MigrationInfo *info)
         break;
     case MIGRATION_STATUS_FAILED:
         info->has_status = true;
-        if (s->error) {
-            info->error_desc = g_strdup(error_get_pretty(s->error));
-        }
         break;
     case MIGRATION_STATUS_CANCELLED:
         info->has_status = true;
@@ -1072,6 +1069,11 @@ static void fill_source_migration_info(MigrationInfo *info)
         break;
     }
     info->status = state;
+
+    QEMU_LOCK_GUARD(&s->error_mutex);
+    if (s->error) {
+        info->error_desc = g_strdup(error_get_pretty(s->error));
+    }
 }
 
 static void fill_destination_migration_info(MigrationInfo *info)
diff --git a/qapi/migration.json b/qapi/migration.json
index d8f3bbd7b0..d7dfaa5db9 100644
--- a/qapi/migration.json
+++ b/qapi/migration.json
@@ -230,9 +230,8 @@
 #     throttled during auto-converge.  This is only present when
 #     auto-converge has started throttling guest cpus.  (Since 2.7)
 #
-# @error-desc: the human readable error description string, when
-#     @status is 'failed'. Clients should not attempt to parse the
-#     error strings.  (Since 2.7)
+# @error-desc: the human readable error description string. Clients
+#     should not attempt to parse the error strings.  (Since 2.7)
 #
 # @postcopy-blocktime: total time when all vCPU were blocked during
 #     postcopy live migration.  This is only present when the