diff --git a/src/journal/compress.c b/src/journal/compress.c
index e6ce64fc65..1b0c01a8fb 100644
--- a/src/journal/compress.c
+++ b/src/journal/compress.c
@@ -326,7 +326,7 @@ int decompress_blob(
                                 src, src_size,
                                 dst, dst_alloc_size, dst_size, dst_max);
         else
-                return -EBADMSG;
+                return -EPROTONOSUPPORT;
 }
 
 int decompress_startswith_xz(const void *src, uint64_t src_size,