diff --git a/drivers/block/ublk_drv.c b/drivers/block/ublk_drv.c
index 4ca6ec738c93..2a22f9dc1f2f 100644
--- a/drivers/block/ublk_drv.c
+++ b/drivers/block/ublk_drv.c
@@ -4764,6 +4764,15 @@ static int ublk_ctrl_add_dev(const struct ublksrv_ctrl_cmd *header)
 	/* update device id */
 	ub->dev_info.dev_id = ub->ub_number;
 
+	/*
+	 * ->state and ->ublksrv_pid are owned by the driver and only read back
+	 * by userspace, but they come from the copied-in dev_info, so reset
+	 * them. Otherwise a device added with ->state != DEAD looks live while
+	 * ->ub_disk is still NULL.
+	 */
+	ub->dev_info.state = UBLK_S_DEV_DEAD;
+	ub->dev_info.ublksrv_pid = -1;
+
 	/*
 	 * 64bit flags will be copied back to userspace as feature
 	 * negotiation result, so have to clear flags which driver