diff --git a/src/shared/audit.c b/src/shared/audit.c
index 5466447737..f101050825 100644
--- a/src/shared/audit.c
+++ b/src/shared/audit.c
@@ -77,9 +77,6 @@ int audit_loginuid_from_pid(pid_t pid, uid_t *uid) {
         if (r < 0)
                 return r;
 
-        if (u == (uid_t) -1)
-                return -ENXIO;
-
         *uid = (uid_t) u;
         return 0;
 }
diff --git a/src/shared/util.c b/src/shared/util.c
index e75f6c9df3..9b5a47ab6f 100644
--- a/src/shared/util.c
+++ b/src/shared/util.c
@@ -282,11 +282,11 @@ int parse_uid(const char *s, uid_t* ret_uid) {
 
         /* Some libc APIs use (uid_t) -1 as special placeholder */
         if (uid == (uid_t) 0xFFFFFFFF)
-                return -EINVAL;
+                return -ENXIO;
 
         /* A long time ago UIDs where 16bit, hence explicitly avoid the 16bit -1 too */
         if (uid == (uid_t) 0xFFFF)
-                return -EINVAL;
+                return -ENXIO;
 
         *ret_uid = uid;
         return 0;