diff --git a/src/qemu/qemu_driver.c b/src/qemu/qemu_driver.c
index 99829ad2290ef9c8d931ec0dacc5d623da69893a..62d7b581f41977b1f5f632ac14ace6f4a805325d 100644
--- a/src/qemu/qemu_driver.c
+++ b/src/qemu/qemu_driver.c
@@ -6800,7 +6800,7 @@ qemuDomainSaveImageStartVM(virConnectPtr conn,
 {
     qemuDomainObjPrivatePtr priv = vm->privateData;
     int ret = -1;
-    bool restored = false;
+    bool started = false;
     virObjectEventPtr event;
     VIR_AUTOCLOSE intermediatefd = -1;
     g_autoptr(virCommand) cmd = NULL;
@@ -6808,6 +6808,7 @@ qemuDomainSaveImageStartVM(virConnectPtr conn,
     g_autoptr(virQEMUDriverConfig) cfg = virQEMUDriverGetConfig(driver);
     virQEMUSaveHeaderPtr header = &data->header;
     g_autoptr(qemuDomainSaveCookie) cookie = NULL;
+    int rc = 0;
 
     if (virSaveCookieParseString(data->cookie, (virObjectPtr *)&cookie,
                                  virDomainXMLOptionGetSaveCookie(driver->xmlopt)) < 0)
@@ -6848,12 +6849,12 @@ qemuDomainSaveImageStartVM(virConnectPtr conn,
                          VIR_NETDEV_VPORT_PROFILE_OP_RESTORE,
                          VIR_QEMU_PROCESS_START_PAUSED |
                          VIR_QEMU_PROCESS_START_GEN_VMID) == 0)
-        restored = true;
+        started = true;
 
     if (intermediatefd != -1) {
         virErrorPtr orig_err = NULL;
 
-        if (!restored) {
+        if (!started) {
             /* if there was an error setting up qemu, the intermediate
              * process will wait forever to write to stdout, so we
              * must manually kill it and ignore any error related to
@@ -6864,21 +6865,17 @@ qemuDomainSaveImageStartVM(virConnectPtr conn,
             VIR_FORCE_CLOSE(*fd);
         }
 
-        if (virCommandWait(cmd, NULL) < 0) {
-            qemuProcessStop(driver, vm, VIR_DOMAIN_SHUTOFF_FAILED, asyncJob, 0);
-            restored = false;
-        }
+        rc = virCommandWait(cmd, NULL);
         VIR_DEBUG("Decompression binary stderr: %s", NULLSTR(errbuf));
-
         virErrorRestore(&orig_err);
     }
     if (VIR_CLOSE(*fd) < 0) {
         virReportSystemError(errno, _("cannot close file: %s"), path);
-        restored = false;
+        rc = -1;
     }
 
-    virDomainAuditStart(vm, "restored", restored);
-    if (!restored)
+    virDomainAuditStart(vm, "restored", started);
+    if (!started || rc < 0)
         goto cleanup;
 
     /* qemuProcessStart doesn't unset the qemu error reporting infrastructure
@@ -6918,6 +6915,10 @@ qemuDomainSaveImageStartVM(virConnectPtr conn,
     ret = 0;
 
  cleanup:
+    if (ret < 0 && started) {
+        qemuProcessStop(driver, vm, VIR_DOMAIN_SHUTOFF_FAILED,
+                        asyncJob, VIR_QEMU_PROCESS_STOP_MIGRATED);
+    }
     if (qemuSecurityRestoreSavedStateLabel(driver, vm, path) < 0)
         VIR_WARN("failed to restore save state label on %s", path);
     return ret;