diff --git a/libavformat/utils.c b/libavformat/utils.c
index d9478dbbd0..db1dc14bb6 100644
--- a/libavformat/utils.c
+++ b/libavformat/utils.c
@@ -560,7 +560,7 @@ int av_open_input_file(AVFormatContext **ic_ptr, const char *filename,
 
     /* if still no format found, error */
     if (!fmt) {
-        err = AVERROR_NOFMT;
+        err = AVERROR_INVALIDDATA;
         goto fail;
     }