diff --git a/src/storage/storage_backend.h b/src/storage/storage_backend.h
index 39c00b1a807751640848d6d0caddaaaf4ac9e228..96b5f39161dd76b8831305caf7716a3e6a067eed 100644
--- a/src/storage/storage_backend.h
+++ b/src/storage/storage_backend.h
@@ -48,6 +48,16 @@ typedef int (*virStorageBackendStopPool)(virConnectPtr conn,
 typedef int (*virStorageBackendDeletePool)(virConnectPtr conn,
                                            virStoragePoolObjPtr pool,
                                            unsigned int flags);
+
+/* A 'buildVol' backend must remove any volume created on error since
+ * the storage driver does not distinguish whether the failure is due
+ * to failure to create the volume, to reserve any space necessary for
+ * the volume, to get data about the volume, to change it's accessibility,
+ * etc. This avoids issues arising from a creation failure due to some
+ * external action which created a volume of the same name that libvirt
+ * was not aware of between checking the pool and the create attempt. It
+ * also avoids extra round trips to just delete a file.
+ */
 typedef int (*virStorageBackendBuildVol)(virConnectPtr conn,
                                          virStoragePoolObjPtr pool,
                                          virStorageVolDefPtr vol,
diff --git a/src/storage/storage_driver.c b/src/storage/storage_driver.c
index 31b70958978f3225f48e5fd7d96f08ab2930c2d6..ee8b263bac0d9bd2cf73ea77385ad8cf97984a1e 100644
--- a/src/storage/storage_driver.c
+++ b/src/storage/storage_driver.c
@@ -1869,8 +1869,8 @@ storageVolCreateXML(virStoragePoolPtr obj,
         pool->asyncjobs--;
 
         if (buildret < 0) {
-            storageVolDeleteInternal(volobj, backend, pool, voldef,
-                                     0, false);
+            /* buildVol handles deleting volume on failure */
+            storageVolRemoveFromPool(pool, voldef);
             voldef = NULL;
             goto cleanup;
         }