diff --git a/drivers/net/phy/phy_device.c b/drivers/net/phy/phy_device.c
index 634e8286e9b32a799e42b836bc573cc564b95670..9ee52409b41dcc56dbfed3443416e962c2863746 100644
--- a/drivers/net/phy/phy_device.c
+++ b/drivers/net/phy/phy_device.c
@@ -606,8 +606,10 @@ static int get_phy_id(struct mii_bus *bus, int addr, u32 *phy_id,
 
 	/* Grab the bits from PHYIR2, and put them in the lower half */
 	phy_reg = mdiobus_read(bus, addr, MII_PHYSID2);
-	if (phy_reg < 0)
-		return -EIO;
+	if (phy_reg < 0) {
+		/* returning -ENODEV doesn't stop bus scanning */
+		return (phy_reg == -EIO || phy_reg == -ENODEV) ? -ENODEV : -EIO;
+	}
 
 	*phy_id |= (phy_reg & 0xffff);