diff --git a/src/plugins/updateinfo/updateinfotools.h b/src/plugins/updateinfo/updateinfotools.h
index 66ad2eb3aca..c8dd3a7fd07 100644
--- a/src/plugins/updateinfo/updateinfotools.h
+++ b/src/plugins/updateinfo/updateinfotools.h
@@ -31,6 +31,7 @@
 #include <QDomDocument>
 #include <QList>
 #include <QLoggingCategory>
+#include <QRegularExpression>
 #include <QVersionNumber>
 
 #include <memory>
@@ -40,8 +41,11 @@ Q_DECLARE_LOGGING_CATEGORY(log)
 std::unique_ptr<QDomDocument> documentForResponse(const QString &response)
 {
     // since the output can contain two toplevel items from the two separate MaintenanceTool runs,
-    // surround with a toplevel element
-    const QString xml = response.isEmpty() ? QString() : ("<doc>" + response + "</doc>");
+    // clean up any <?xml version="1.0"?> and surround with a toplevel element
+    QString responseWithoutHeader = response;
+    responseWithoutHeader.remove(QRegularExpression("<\\?xml.*\\?>"));
+    const QString xml = response.isEmpty() ? QString()
+                                           : ("<doc>" + responseWithoutHeader + "</doc>");
     std::unique_ptr<QDomDocument> doc(new QDomDocument);
     doc->setContent(xml);
     return doc;
diff --git a/tests/auto/updateinfo/tst_updateinfo.cpp b/tests/auto/updateinfo/tst_updateinfo.cpp
index 55e61a16c23..1fa1686919b 100644
--- a/tests/auto/updateinfo/tst_updateinfo.cpp
+++ b/tests/auto/updateinfo/tst_updateinfo.cpp
@@ -45,9 +45,11 @@ void tst_UpdateInfo::updates_data()
     QTest::addColumn<QList<QtPackage>>("xpackages");
 
     QTest::newRow("updates and packages")
-        << R"raw(<updates>
+        << R"raw(<?xml version="1.0"?>
+        <updates>
         <update name="Qt Design Studio 3.2.0" version="3.2.0-0-202203291247" size="3113234690" id="qt.tools.qtdesignstudio"/>
         </updates>
+        <?xml version="1.0"?>
         <availablepackages>
         <package name="qt.qt6.621" displayname="Qt 6.2.1" version="6.2.1-0-202110220854"/>
         <package name="qt.qt5.5152" displayname="Qt 5.15.2" version="5.15.2-0-202011130607" installedVersion="5.15.2-0-202011130607"/>