diff --git a/man/systemd-machine-id-setup.xml b/man/systemd-machine-id-setup.xml
index 8ece65eacc..bb53cc7069 100644
--- a/man/systemd-machine-id-setup.xml
+++ b/man/systemd-machine-id-setup.xml
@@ -43,24 +43,31 @@
     ID will be acquired in the following fashion:</para>
 
     <orderedlist>
-      <listitem><para>If a valid D-Bus machine ID is already
-      configured for the system, the D-Bus machine ID is copied and
-      used to initialize the machine ID in
-      <filename>/etc/machine-id</filename>.</para></listitem>
+      <listitem><para>If a valid machine ID is stored in <filename>/run/machine-id</filename>, the machine ID
+      is copied and used to initialize the machine ID in <filename>/etc/machine-id</filename>. This step is
+      skipped if <option>--root=</option> is specified or running in a chroot environment.</para></listitem>
 
-      <listitem><para>If run inside a KVM virtual machine and a UUID
-      is configured (via the <option>-uuid</option>
-      option), this UUID is used to initialize the machine ID. The
-      caller must ensure that the UUID passed is sufficiently unique
-      and is different for every booted instance of the
-      VM.</para></listitem>
+      <listitem><para>If a valid D-Bus machine ID is already configured for the system, the D-Bus machine ID
+      is copied and used to initialize the machine ID in <filename>/etc/machine-id</filename>.
+      </para></listitem>
+
+      <listitem><para>If a valid machine ID is provided through <option>system.machine_id</option> credential,
+      the machine ID is copied and used to initialize the machine ID in <filename>/etc/machine-id</filename>.
+      This step is skipped if <option>--root=</option> is specified or running in a chroot environment.
+      </para></listitem>
+
+      <listitem><para>If run inside a KVM virtual machine and a UUID is configured (via the
+      <option>-uuid</option> option), this UUID is used to initialize the machine ID. The caller must ensure
+      that the UUID passed is sufficiently unique and is different for every booted instance of the VM. This
+      step is skipped if <option>--root=</option> is specified or running in a chroot environment.
+      </para></listitem>
 
       <listitem><para>Similarly, if run inside a Linux container environment and a UUID is configured for the
       container, this is used to initialize the machine ID. For details, see the documentation of the <ulink
-      url="https://systemd.io/CONTAINER_INTERFACE">Container Interface</ulink>.</para></listitem>
+      url="https://systemd.io/CONTAINER_INTERFACE">Container Interface</ulink>. This step is skipped if
+      <option>--root=</option> is specified or running in a chroot environment.</para></listitem>
 
-      <listitem><para>Otherwise, a new ID is randomly
-      generated.</para></listitem>
+      <listitem><para>Otherwise, a new ID is randomly generated.</para></listitem>
     </orderedlist>
 
     <para>The <option>--commit</option> switch may be used to commit a
diff --git a/src/shared/machine-id-setup.c b/src/shared/machine-id-setup.c
index 48ee2dd306..1a63794756 100644
--- a/src/shared/machine-id-setup.c
+++ b/src/shared/machine-id-setup.c
@@ -55,9 +55,9 @@ static int acquire_machine_id(const char *root, sd_id128_t *ret) {
         assert(ret);
 
         /* First, try reading the machine ID from /run/machine-id, which may not be mounted on
-         * /etc/machine-id yet. This is important on switching root, Otherwise, machine ID may be changed
-         * after the transition. */
-        if (empty_or_root(root) && running_in_chroot() <= 0 &&
+         * /etc/machine-id yet. This is important on switching root especially on soft-reboot, Otherwise,
+         * machine ID may be changed after the transition. */
+        if (isempty(root) && running_in_chroot() <= 0 &&
             id128_read("/run/machine-id", ID128_FORMAT_PLAIN, ret) >= 0) {
                 log_info("Reusing machine ID stored in /run/machine-id.");
                 return 1; /* Indicate that the machine ID is reused. */
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ static int acquire_machine_id(const char *root, sd_id128_t *ret) {
                 return 0;
         }
 
-        if (empty_or_root(root) && running_in_chroot() <= 0) {
+        if (isempty(root) && running_in_chroot() <= 0) {
                 /* Let's use a system credential for the machine ID if we can */
                 if (acquire_machine_id_from_credential(ret) >= 0)
                         return 0;