diff --git a/hw/net/virtio-net.c b/hw/net/virtio-net.c
index 1c5af08dc5..439f823b19 100644
--- a/hw/net/virtio-net.c
+++ b/hw/net/virtio-net.c
@@ -855,21 +855,19 @@ static void failover_add_primary(VirtIONet *n, Error **errp)
 
     id = failover_find_primary_device_id(n);
     if (!id) {
-        return;
-    }
-    opts = qemu_opts_find(qemu_find_opts("device"), id);
-    if (opts) {
-        dev = qdev_device_add(opts, &err);
-        if (err) {
-            qemu_opts_del(opts);
-        } else {
-            object_unref(OBJECT(dev));
-        }
-    } else {
         error_setg(errp, "Primary device not found");
         error_append_hint(errp, "Virtio-net failover will not work. Make "
                           "sure primary device has parameter"
-                          " failover_pair_id=<virtio-net-id>\n");
+                          " failover_pair_id=%s\n", n->netclient_name);
+        return;
+    }
+    opts = qemu_opts_find(qemu_find_opts("device"), id);
+    g_assert(opts); /* cannot be NULL because id was found using opts list */
+    dev = qdev_device_add(opts, &err);
+    if (err) {
+        qemu_opts_del(opts);
+    } else {
+        object_unref(OBJECT(dev));
     }
     error_propagate(errp, err);
 }