diff --git a/util/vhost-user-server.c b/util/vhost-user-server.c
index 3bfb1ad3ec..b19229074a 100644
--- a/util/vhost-user-server.c
+++ b/util/vhost-user-server.c
@@ -65,6 +65,18 @@ static void vmsg_close_fds(VhostUserMsg *vmsg)
 static void vmsg_unblock_fds(VhostUserMsg *vmsg)
 {
     int i;
+
+    /*
+     * These messages carry fd used to map memory, not to send/receive messages,
+     * so this operation is useless. In addition, in some systems this
+     * operation can fail (e.g. in macOS setting an fd returned by shm_open()
+     * non-blocking fails with errno = ENOTTY)
+     */
+    if (vmsg->request == VHOST_USER_ADD_MEM_REG ||
+        vmsg->request == VHOST_USER_SET_MEM_TABLE) {
+        return;
+    }
+
     for (i = 0; i < vmsg->fd_num; i++) {
         qemu_socket_set_nonblock(vmsg->fds[i]);
     }