diff --git a/virtcontainers/qemu.go b/virtcontainers/qemu.go
index 86c380b2ab..c7eec4120b 100644
--- a/virtcontainers/qemu.go
+++ b/virtcontainers/qemu.go
@@ -2227,6 +2227,11 @@ func (q *qemu) toGrpc() ([]byte, error) {
 }
 
 func (q *qemu) save() (s persistapi.HypervisorState) {
+	// If QEMU isn't even running, there isn't any state to save
+	if q.stopped {
+		return
+	}
+
 	pids := q.getPids()
 	if len(pids) != 0 {
 		s.Pid = pids[0]