diff --git a/src/libnm-glib-aux/nm-shared-utils.c b/src/libnm-glib-aux/nm-shared-utils.c
index d2e989841f..702a63e9f6 100644
--- a/src/libnm-glib-aux/nm-shared-utils.c
+++ b/src/libnm-glib-aux/nm-shared-utils.c
@@ -2130,15 +2130,16 @@ nm_strv_cleanup(char **strv, gboolean strip_whitespace, gboolean skip_empty, gbo
 /*****************************************************************************/
 
 GPtrArray *
-_nm_g_ptr_array_copy(GPtrArray     *array,
-                     GCopyFunc      func,
-                     gpointer       user_data,
-                     GDestroyNotify element_free_func)
+nm_g_ptr_array_new_clone(GPtrArray     *array,
+                         GCopyFunc      func,
+                         gpointer       user_data,
+                         GDestroyNotify element_free_func)
 {
     GPtrArray *new_array;
     guint      i;
 
     g_return_val_if_fail(array, NULL);
+    nm_assert((!!func) == (!!element_free_func));
 
     new_array = g_ptr_array_new_full(array->len, element_free_func);
     for (i = 0; i < array->len; i++) {
diff --git a/src/libnm-glib-aux/nm-shared-utils.h b/src/libnm-glib-aux/nm-shared-utils.h
index 7ad2874244..083ed137ee 100644
--- a/src/libnm-glib-aux/nm-shared-utils.h
+++ b/src/libnm-glib-aux/nm-shared-utils.h
@@ -2068,40 +2068,29 @@ nm_g_ptr_array_pdata(const GPtrArray *arr)
     return arr ? arr->pdata : NULL;
 }
 
-GPtrArray *_nm_g_ptr_array_copy(GPtrArray     *array,
-                                GCopyFunc      func,
-                                gpointer       user_data,
-                                GDestroyNotify element_free_func);
-
 /**
- * nm_g_ptr_array_copy:
+ * nm_g_ptr_array_new_clone:
  * @array: the #GPtrArray to clone.
  * @func: the copy function.
  * @user_data: the user data for the copy function
- * @element_free_func: the free function of the elements. @array MUST have
- *   the same element_free_func. This argument is only used on older
- *   glib, that doesn't support g_ptr_array_copy().
+ * @element_free_func: the free function of the elements. This function
+ *   must agree with the owner-ship semantics of @func.
  *
  * This is a replacement for g_ptr_array_copy(), which is not available
  * before glib 2.62. Since GPtrArray does not allow to access the internal
  * element_free_func, we cannot add a compatibility implementation of g_ptr_array_copy()
- * and the user must provide a suitable destroy function.
+ * as the caller must provide the correct element_free_func.
  *
- * Note that the @element_free_func MUST correspond to free function set in @array.
+ * So this is not the same as g_ptr_array_copy() (hence the different name) because
+ * g_ptr_array_copy() uses the free func of the source array, which we cannot access.
+ * With g_ptr_array_copy() the copy func must agree with the array's free func.
+ * Here, it must agree with the provided @element_free_func. This allows for example
+ * to do a shallow-copy without cloning the elements (which you cannot do with g_ptr_array_copy()).
  */
-#if GLIB_CHECK_VERSION(2, 62, 0)
-#define nm_g_ptr_array_copy(array, func, user_data, element_free_func)            \
-    ({                                                                            \
-        _nm_unused GDestroyNotify const _element_free_func = (element_free_func); \
-                                                                                  \
-        G_GNUC_BEGIN_IGNORE_DEPRECATIONS;                                         \
-        g_ptr_array_copy((array), (func), (user_data));                           \
-        G_GNUC_END_IGNORE_DEPRECATIONS;                                           \
-    })
-#else
-#define nm_g_ptr_array_copy(array, func, user_data, element_free_func) \
-    _nm_g_ptr_array_copy((array), (func), (user_data), (element_free_func))
-#endif
+GPtrArray *nm_g_ptr_array_new_clone(GPtrArray     *array,
+                                    GCopyFunc      func,
+                                    gpointer       user_data,
+                                    GDestroyNotify element_free_func);
 
 /*****************************************************************************/
 
@@ -2510,7 +2499,7 @@ nm_strv_ptrarray_clone(const GPtrArray *src, gboolean null_if_empty)
 {
     if (!src || (null_if_empty && src->len == 0))
         return NULL;
-    return nm_g_ptr_array_copy((GPtrArray *) src, nm_copy_func_g_strdup, NULL, g_free);
+    return nm_g_ptr_array_new_clone((GPtrArray *) src, nm_copy_func_g_strdup, NULL, g_free);
 }
 
 static inline void