diff --git a/modules/juce_audio_devices/audio_io/juce_AudioDeviceManager.cpp b/modules/juce_audio_devices/audio_io/juce_AudioDeviceManager.cpp
index bd558f2eb4..8abf686460 100644
--- a/modules/juce_audio_devices/audio_io/juce_AudioDeviceManager.cpp
+++ b/modules/juce_audio_devices/audio_io/juce_AudioDeviceManager.cpp
@@ -511,6 +511,16 @@ String AudioDeviceManager::initialiseFromXML (const XmlElement& xml,
             currentDeviceType = firstType->getTypeName();
     }
 
+    const auto deviceNameMissing = (numInputChansNeeded  > 0 && setup.inputDeviceName .isEmpty())
+                                || (numOutputChansNeeded > 0 && setup.outputDeviceName.isEmpty());
+
+    // If there's no device name, then normally this would prevent a device from opening.
+    // If failing to open a device would conflict with the number of requested channels, then we
+    // pre-emptively treat this as a failure and fall back to using devices that're able to provide
+    // the requested channel counts.
+    if (selectDefaultDeviceOnFailure && deviceNameMissing)
+        insertDefaultDeviceNames (setup);
+
     setup.bufferSize = xml.getIntAttribute ("audioDeviceBufferSize", setup.bufferSize);
     setup.sampleRate = xml.getDoubleAttribute ("audioDeviceRate", setup.sampleRate);