diff --git a/Documentation/devicetree/bindings/barebox/barebox,state.rst b/Documentation/devicetree/bindings/barebox/barebox,state.rst
index e9daa65..00fb592 100644
--- a/Documentation/devicetree/bindings/barebox/barebox,state.rst
+++ b/Documentation/devicetree/bindings/barebox/barebox,state.rst
@@ -40,9 +40,9 @@
   e.g. ``hmac(sha256)``. Only used for ``raw``.
 * ``backend-stridesize``: Maximum size per copy of the data. Only important for
   non-MTD devices
-* ``backend-storage-type``: Type of the storage. This has two options at the
-  moment. For MTD with erasing the correct type is ``circular``. For all other
-  devices and files, ``direct`` is the needed type.
+* ``backend-storage-type``: Normally the correct storage type is detected auto-
+  matically. The circular backend supports the option ``noncircular`` to fall
+  back to an old storage format.
 
 Variable nodes
 --------------
diff --git a/common/state/backend_storage.c b/common/state/backend_storage.c
index f9e8151..036204c 100644
--- a/common/state/backend_storage.c
+++ b/common/state/backend_storage.c
@@ -376,13 +376,15 @@
 		ret = mtd_get_meminfo(path, &meminfo);
 
 	if (!ret && !(meminfo.flags & MTD_NO_ERASE)) {
-		bool circular = true;
-		if (!storagetype) {
+		bool circular;
+		if (!storagetype || !strcmp(storagetype, "circular")) {
+			circular = true;
+		} else if (!strcmp(storagetype, "noncircular")) {
+			dev_warn(storage->dev, "using old format circular storage type.\n");
 			circular = false;
-		} else if (strcmp(storagetype, "circular")) {
-			dev_warn(storage->dev, "Unknown storagetype '%s', falling back to old format circular storage type.\n",
-				 storagetype);
-			circular = false;
+		} else {
+			dev_warn(storage->dev, "unknown storage type '%s'\n", storagetype);
+			return -EINVAL;
 		}
 		return state_storage_mtd_buckets_init(storage, &meminfo, circular);
 	} else {