diff --git a/tools/ratbagctl.in b/tools/ratbagctl.in
index 8196ba8b..e0988611 100755
--- a/tools/ratbagctl.in
+++ b/tools/ratbagctl.in
@@ -55,6 +55,9 @@ for k, v in [(v, k) for k, v in button_specials_strmap.items()]:
 
 
 def list_devices(r, args):
+    if not r.devices:
+        print("No devices available.")
+
     for d in r.devices:
         print("{:10s} {:32s}".format(d.id + ":", d.name))
 
@@ -1445,9 +1448,6 @@ def open_ratbagd(ratbagd_process=None):
         print("Unable to connect to ratbagd over dbus")
         return None
 
-    if not r.devices:
-        print("No devices available.")
-
     if ratbagd_process is not None:
         # if some old version of ratbagd is still running, ratbagd_process may
         # have never started but our DBus bindings may succeed. Check for the