diff --git a/tests/testutilsqemu.c b/tests/testutilsqemu.c
index 1a3eae2c07..1444abc401 100644
--- a/tests/testutilsqemu.c
+++ b/tests/testutilsqemu.c
@@ -790,9 +790,6 @@ testQemuInfoSetArgs(struct testQemuInfo *info,
             if (!(qemuCaps = qemuTestParseCapabilitiesArch(info->arch, capsfile)))
                 goto cleanup;
 
-            if (stripmachinealiases)
-                virQEMUCapsStripMachineAliases(qemuCaps);
-
             cachedcaps = qemuCaps;
 
             g_hash_table_insert(capscache, g_strdup(capsfile), g_steal_pointer(&qemuCaps));
@@ -801,6 +798,9 @@ testQemuInfoSetArgs(struct testQemuInfo *info,
         if (!(qemuCaps = virQEMUCapsNewCopy(cachedcaps)))
             goto cleanup;
 
+        if (stripmachinealiases)
+            virQEMUCapsStripMachineAliases(qemuCaps);
+
         info->flags |= FLAG_REAL_CAPS;
 
         /* provide path to the replies file for schema testing */