diff --git a/src/qemu/qemu_monitor.c b/src/qemu/qemu_monitor.c
index c24d481be7da1d39db58d8af4545ae7de0284632..e06b0eb4f983709a70919e1ba952280235796f80 100644
--- a/src/qemu/qemu_monitor.c
+++ b/src/qemu/qemu_monitor.c
@@ -1511,10 +1511,11 @@ int qemuMonitorMigrateToFile(qemuMonitorPtr mon,
      * <> redirection to avoid truncating a regular file.  */
     if (virAsprintf(&dest, "exec:" VIR_WRAPPER_SHELL_PREFIX "%s | "
                     "{ dd bs=%llu seek=%llu if=/dev/null && "
-                    "dd bs=%llu; } 1<>%s" VIR_WRAPPER_SHELL_SUFFIX,
+                    "dd ibs=%llu obs=%llu; } 1<>%s" VIR_WRAPPER_SHELL_SUFFIX,
                     argstr, QEMU_MONITOR_MIGRATE_TO_FILE_BS,
                     offset / QEMU_MONITOR_MIGRATE_TO_FILE_BS,
                     QEMU_MONITOR_MIGRATE_TO_FILE_TRANSFER_SIZE,
+                    QEMU_MONITOR_MIGRATE_TO_FILE_TRANSFER_SIZE,
                     safe_target) < 0) {
         virReportOOMError();
         goto cleanup;