diff --git a/include/libcamera/internal/pipeline_handler.h b/include/libcamera/internal/pipeline_handler.h
index 972a2fa65310..5fa8bc2f66ee 100644
--- a/include/libcamera/internal/pipeline_handler.h
+++ b/include/libcamera/internal/pipeline_handler.h
@@ -71,6 +71,8 @@ public:
 	CameraManager *cameraManager() const { return manager_; }
 
 protected:
+	void clearMediaDevices();
+
 	void registerCamera(std::shared_ptr<Camera> camera);
 	void hotplugMediaDevice(MediaDevice *media);
 
diff --git a/src/libcamera/pipeline_handler.cpp b/src/libcamera/pipeline_handler.cpp
index d84dff3c9f19..8f12957b75fa 100644
--- a/src/libcamera/pipeline_handler.cpp
+++ b/src/libcamera/pipeline_handler.cpp
@@ -142,6 +142,21 @@ MediaDevice *PipelineHandler::acquireMediaDevice(DeviceEnumerator *enumerator,
 	return media.get();
 }
 
+/**
+ * \brief Clear the list of acquired media devices for this PipelineHandler instance
+ *
+ * This is meant to be used when the Pipeline Handler needs to search multiple
+ * media graphs to create multiple instances of itself, and a partial match
+ * needs to be canceled as an invalid media device was detected. This is to
+ * prevent mediaDevices_ from having a mix of invalid media devices from a
+ * previous failed match and valid media devices from the current succeeding
+ * match.
+ */
+void PipelineHandler::clearMediaDevices()
+{
+	mediaDevices_.clear();
+}
+
 /**
  * \brief Acquire exclusive access to the pipeline handler for the process
  *