diff --git a/libnm-core/nm-setting-vlan.c b/libnm-core/nm-setting-vlan.c
index 0cb1374719..22fb2d7403 100644
--- a/libnm-core/nm-setting-vlan.c
+++ b/libnm-core/nm-setting-vlan.c
@@ -566,7 +566,8 @@ verify (NMSetting *setting, GSList *all_settings, GError **error)
 		/* If parent is NULL, the parent must be specified via
 		 * NMSettingWired:mac-address.
 		 */
-		if (!s_wired || !nm_setting_wired_get_mac_address (s_wired)) {
+		if (   all_settings
+		    && (!s_wired || !nm_setting_wired_get_mac_address (s_wired))) {
 			g_set_error (error,
 			             NM_SETTING_VLAN_ERROR,
 			             NM_SETTING_VLAN_ERROR_MISSING_PROPERTY,
diff --git a/libnm-core/nm-setting.c b/libnm-core/nm-setting.c
index 61cbdc3ede..e6305f6ecb 100644
--- a/libnm-core/nm-setting.c
+++ b/libnm-core/nm-setting.c
@@ -1413,6 +1413,22 @@ _nm_setting_verify_deprecated_virtual_iface_name (const char *interface_name,
 	NMSettingConnection *s_con;
 	const char *con_name;
 
+	if (!all_settings) {
+		/* nm_setting_verify() was called without passing on any other settings.
+		 * Perform a relaxed verification, the setting might be valid when checked
+		 * together with a NMSettingConnection as part of a NMConnection. */
+		if (interface_name && !nm_utils_iface_valid_name (interface_name)) {
+			/* Only if the interace name is invalid, there is an normalizable warning */
+			g_set_error_literal (error,
+			                     error_quark,
+			                     e_invalid_property,
+			                     _("property is invalid"));
+			g_prefix_error (error, "%s.%s: ", setting_name, setting_property);
+			return NM_SETTING_VERIFY_NORMALIZABLE;
+		}
+		return NM_SETTING_VERIFY_SUCCESS;
+	}
+
 	s_con = NM_SETTING_CONNECTION (nm_setting_find_in_list (all_settings, NM_SETTING_CONNECTION_SETTING_NAME));
 	con_name = s_con ? nm_setting_connection_get_interface_name (s_con) : NULL;
 	if (!interface_name && !con_name) {