diff --git a/src/qemu/qemu_firmware.c b/src/qemu/qemu_firmware.c
index b08fb95585..dca0a79868 100644
--- a/src/qemu/qemu_firmware.c
+++ b/src/qemu/qemu_firmware.c
@@ -971,6 +971,7 @@ qemuFirmwareEnsureNVRAM(virDomainDef *def,
 {
     g_autoptr(virQEMUDriverConfig) cfg = virQEMUDriverGetConfig(driver);
     virDomainLoaderDef *loader = def->os.loader;
+    virStorageFileFormat nvramFormat = VIR_STORAGE_FILE_NONE;
     const char *ext = NULL;
 
     if (!loader)
@@ -999,19 +1000,26 @@ qemuFirmwareEnsureNVRAM(virDomainDef *def,
             return;
         }
 
-        /* otherwise we want to reset and re-populate the definition */
+        /* Otherwise we want to reset and re-populate the definition.
+         * In this case we still retain a single piece of information:
+         * the user-provided NVRAM format */
+        nvramFormat = loader->nvram->format;
+
         virObjectUnref(loader->nvram);
     }
 
     loader->nvram = virStorageSourceNew();
     loader->nvram->type = VIR_STORAGE_TYPE_FILE;
+    loader->nvram->format = nvramFormat;
 
     /* The nvram template format should be always present but as a failsafe,
      * duplicate the loader format if it is not available. */
-    if (loader->nvramTemplateFormat > VIR_STORAGE_FILE_NONE)
-        loader->nvram->format = loader->nvramTemplateFormat;
-    else
-        loader->nvram->format = loader->format;
+    if (!loader->nvram->format) {
+        if (loader->nvramTemplateFormat)
+            loader->nvram->format = loader->nvramTemplateFormat;
+        else
+            loader->nvram->format = loader->format;
+    }
 
     if (loader->nvram->format == VIR_STORAGE_FILE_RAW) {
         /* The extension used by raw edk2 builds has historically
diff --git a/tests/qemuxmlconfdata/firmware-auto-efi-format-mismatch.x86_64-latest.args b/tests/qemuxmlconfdata/firmware-auto-efi-format-mismatch.x86_64-latest.args
index e7c9110c95..468d7ee048 100644
--- a/tests/qemuxmlconfdata/firmware-auto-efi-format-mismatch.x86_64-latest.args
+++ b/tests/qemuxmlconfdata/firmware-auto-efi-format-mismatch.x86_64-latest.args
@@ -12,8 +12,9 @@ XDG_CONFIG_HOME=/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/domain--1-guest/.config \
 -object '{"qom-type":"secret","id":"masterKey0","format":"raw","file":"/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/domain--1-guest/master-key.aes"}' \
 -blockdev '{"driver":"file","filename":"/usr/share/edk2/ovmf/OVMF_CODE.secboot.fd","node-name":"libvirt-pflash0-storage","auto-read-only":true,"discard":"unmap"}' \
 -blockdev '{"node-name":"libvirt-pflash0-format","read-only":true,"driver":"raw","file":"libvirt-pflash0-storage"}' \
--blockdev '{"driver":"file","filename":"/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/nvram/guest_VARS.fd","node-name":"libvirt-pflash1-storage","read-only":false}' \
--machine pc-q35-10.0,usb=off,smm=on,dump-guest-core=off,memory-backend=pc.ram,pflash0=libvirt-pflash0-format,pflash1=libvirt-pflash1-storage,acpi=on \
+-blockdev '{"driver":"file","filename":"/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/nvram/guest_VARS.qcow2","node-name":"libvirt-pflash1-storage","auto-read-only":true,"discard":"unmap"}' \
+-blockdev '{"node-name":"libvirt-pflash1-format","read-only":false,"driver":"qcow2","file":"libvirt-pflash1-storage","backing":null}' \
+-machine pc-q35-10.0,usb=off,smm=on,dump-guest-core=off,memory-backend=pc.ram,pflash0=libvirt-pflash0-format,pflash1=libvirt-pflash1-format,acpi=on \
 -accel kvm \
 -cpu qemu64 \
 -global driver=cfi.pflash01,property=secure,value=on \
diff --git a/tests/qemuxmlconfdata/firmware-auto-efi-format-mismatch.x86_64-latest.xml b/tests/qemuxmlconfdata/firmware-auto-efi-format-mismatch.x86_64-latest.xml
index f4df8c07ed..3a7536db2a 100644
--- a/tests/qemuxmlconfdata/firmware-auto-efi-format-mismatch.x86_64-latest.xml
+++ b/tests/qemuxmlconfdata/firmware-auto-efi-format-mismatch.x86_64-latest.xml
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@
       <feature enabled='yes' name='secure-boot'/>
     </firmware>
     <loader readonly='yes' secure='yes' type='pflash' format='raw'>/usr/share/edk2/ovmf/OVMF_CODE.secboot.fd</loader>
-    <nvram template='/usr/share/edk2/ovmf/OVMF_VARS.secboot.fd' templateFormat='raw' format='raw'>/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/nvram/guest_VARS.fd</nvram>
+    <nvram template='/usr/share/edk2/ovmf/OVMF_VARS.secboot.fd' templateFormat='raw' format='qcow2'>/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/nvram/guest_VARS.qcow2</nvram>
     <boot dev='hd'/>
   </os>
   <features>