diff --git a/nixos/modules/virtualisation/libvirtd.nix b/nixos/modules/virtualisation/libvirtd.nix
index ea503a9526f8..5f669dee7545 100644
--- a/nixos/modules/virtualisation/libvirtd.nix
+++ b/nixos/modules/virtualisation/libvirtd.nix
@@ -123,7 +123,7 @@ in {
         # config file. But this path can unfortunately be garbage collected
         # while still being used by the virtual machine. So update the
         # emulator path on each startup to something valid (re-scan $PATH).
-        for file in /etc/libvirt/qemu/*.xml /etc/libvirt/lxc/*.xml; do
+        for file in /var/lib/libvirt/qemu/*.xml /var/lib/libvirt/lxc/*.xml; do
             test -f "$file" || continue
             # get (old) emulator path from config file
             emulator=$(grep "^[[:space:]]*<emulator>" "$file" | sed 's,^[[:space:]]*<emulator>\(.*\)</emulator>.*,\1,')