diff --git a/util/aio-posix.c b/util/aio-posix.c
index 7f2c99729d4475640b7c6b21977123a8e6f97bae..ed0c79e345889bcbb15db0d39f1c83e77e62e910 100644
--- a/util/aio-posix.c
+++ b/util/aio-posix.c
@@ -546,7 +546,14 @@ static bool run_poll_handlers(AioContext *ctx, AioHandlerList *ready_list,
         elapsed_time = qemu_clock_get_ns(QEMU_CLOCK_REALTIME) - start_time;
         max_ns = qemu_soonest_timeout(*timeout, max_ns);
         assert(!(max_ns && progress));
-    } while (elapsed_time < max_ns && !ctx->fdmon_ops->need_wait(ctx));
+
+        if (ctx->fdmon_ops->need_wait(ctx)) {
+            if (fdmon_supports_polling(ctx)) {
+                *timeout = 0; /* stay in polling mode */
+            }
+            break;
+        }
+    } while (elapsed_time < max_ns);
 
     if (remove_idle_poll_handlers(ctx, ready_list,
                                   start_time + elapsed_time)) {
@@ -662,7 +669,7 @@ bool aio_poll(AioContext *ctx, bool blocking)
          * up IO threads when some work becomes pending. It is essential to
          * avoid hangs or unnecessary latency.
          */
-        if (poll_set_started(ctx, &ready_list, false)) {
+        if (timeout && poll_set_started(ctx, &ready_list, false)) {
             timeout = 0;
             progress = true;
         }