diff --git a/src/libostree/ostree-bootloader-grub2.c b/src/libostree/ostree-bootloader-grub2.c
index e15fb9b659..f2d73d33b4 100644
--- a/src/libostree/ostree-bootloader-grub2.c
+++ b/src/libostree/ostree-bootloader-grub2.c
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@
 #define BOOTUPD_CONFIG "boot/bootupd-state.json"
 // Horrible hack, to avoid including a JSON parser we just grep for this
 #define BOOTUPD_CONFIG_STATIC_JSON_FRAGMENT "\"static-configs\""
+#define BOOTUPD_CONFIG_STATIC_JSON_FRAGMENT_NULL "\"static-configs\":null"
 
 /* Maintain backwards compatibility with legacy GRUB
  * installations that might rely on the -16 suffix
@@ -90,9 +91,12 @@ _ostree_bootloader_grub2_query (OstreeBootloader *bootloader, gboolean *out_is_a
         return glnx_prefix_error (error, "Failed to read bootupd config");
       if (strstr (bootupd_config_contents, BOOTUPD_CONFIG_STATIC_JSON_FRAGMENT) != NULL)
         {
-          g_debug ("Found static bootupd config");
-          *out_is_active = FALSE;
-          return TRUE;
+          if (strstr (bootupd_config_contents, BOOTUPD_CONFIG_STATIC_JSON_FRAGMENT_NULL) == NULL)
+            {
+              g_debug ("Found static bootupd config");
+              *out_is_active = FALSE;
+              return TRUE;
+            }
         }
     }
 
diff --git a/tests/kolainst/destructive/bootupd-static.sh b/tests/kolainst/destructive/bootupd-static.sh
index cf8368130a..670178e47d 100755
--- a/tests/kolainst/destructive/bootupd-static.sh
+++ b/tests/kolainst/destructive/bootupd-static.sh
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ bootupd_state=/boot/bootupd-state.json
 mount -o remount,rw /boot
 if grep -qFe "\"static-configs\"" "${bootupd_state}"; then
     echo "Host is using static configs already, overriding this"
-    jq 'del(.["static-configs"])' < "${bootupd_state}" > "${bootupd_state}".new
+    jq --compact-output '.["static-configs"] = null' < "${bootupd_state}" > "${bootupd_state}".new
     mv "${bootupd_state}.new" "${bootupd_state}"
 fi