diff --git a/tools/perf/builtin-buildid-list.c b/tools/perf/builtin-buildid-list.c
index e0881b0ac38f..5555f5dcefe4 100644
--- a/tools/perf/builtin-buildid-list.c
+++ b/tools/perf/builtin-buildid-list.c
@@ -87,6 +87,7 @@ static bool dso__skip_buildid(struct dso *dso, int with_hits)
 static int perf_session__list_build_ids(bool force, bool with_hits)
 {
 	struct perf_session *session;
+	bool has_auxtrace, has_build_id;
 	struct perf_data data = {
 		.path  = input_name,
 		.mode  = PERF_DATA_MODE_READ,
@@ -118,11 +119,19 @@ static int perf_session__list_build_ids(bool force, bool with_hits)
 	 * We take all buildids when the file contains AUX area tracing data
 	 * because we do not decode the trace because it would take too long.
 	 */
-	if (!perf_data__is_pipe(&data) &&
-	    perf_header__has_feat(&session->header, HEADER_AUXTRACE))
+	has_auxtrace = !perf_data__is_pipe(&data) &&
+		perf_header__has_feat(&session->header, HEADER_AUXTRACE);
+	has_build_id = perf_header__has_feat(&session->header, HEADER_BUILD_ID);
+
+	if (has_auxtrace)
 		with_hits = false;
 
-	if (!perf_header__has_feat(&session->header, HEADER_BUILD_ID))
+	/*
+	 * Without a build-ID header, the event stream is processed below to find
+	 * build IDs in MMAP2 records. For AUX data keep all DSOs because the trace
+	 * is not decoded and consequently none of them can be marked as hit.
+	 */
+	if (!has_build_id && !has_auxtrace)
 		with_hits = true;
 
 	if (zstd_init(&(session->zstd_data), 0) < 0)
@@ -132,7 +141,7 @@ static int perf_session__list_build_ids(bool force, bool with_hits)
 	 * in pipe-mode, the only way to get the buildids is to parse
 	 * the record stream. Buildids are stored as RECORD_HEADER_BUILD_ID
 	 */
-	if (with_hits || perf_data__is_pipe(&data))
+	if (with_hits || perf_data__is_pipe(&data) || !has_build_id)
 		perf_session__process_events(session);
 
 	perf_session__fprintf_dsos_buildid(session, stdout, dso__skip_buildid, with_hits);