diff --git a/nixos/modules/system/activation/switch-to-configuration.pl b/nixos/modules/system/activation/switch-to-configuration.pl
index 4289740322a..655fbab2a84 100644
--- a/nixos/modules/system/activation/switch-to-configuration.pl
+++ b/nixos/modules/system/activation/switch-to-configuration.pl
@@ -97,7 +97,7 @@ sub parseFstab {
 sub parseUnit {
     my ($filename) = @_;
     my $info = {};
-    parseKeyValues($info, read_file($filename));
+    parseKeyValues($info, read_file($filename)) if -f $filename;
     parseKeyValues($info, read_file("${filename}.d/overrides.conf")) if -f "${filename}.d/overrides.conf";
     return $info;
 }
@@ -157,7 +157,8 @@ while (my ($unit, $state) = each %{$activePrev}) {
 
     if (-e $prevUnitFile && ($state->{state} eq "active" || $state->{state} eq "activating")) {
         if (! -e $newUnitFile || abs_path($newUnitFile) eq "/dev/null") {
-            $unitsToStop{$unit} = 1;
+            my $unitInfo = parseUnit($prevUnitFile);
+            $unitsToStop{$unit} = 1 if boolIsTrue($unitInfo->{'X-StopOnRemoval'} // "yes");
         }
 
         elsif ($unit =~ /\.target$/) {