diff --git a/gst-libs/gst/pbutils/install-plugins.c b/gst-libs/gst/pbutils/install-plugins.c
index e87d972601..7ca19deebe 100644
--- a/gst-libs/gst/pbutils/install-plugins.c
+++ b/gst-libs/gst/pbutils/install-plugins.c
@@ -366,6 +366,8 @@
 #include <sys/wait.h>
 #endif
 
+#include <string.h>
+
 /* best effort to make things compile and possibly even work on win32 */
 #ifndef WEXITSTATUS
 # define WEXITSTATUS(status) ((((guint)(status)) & 0xff00) >> 8)
@@ -489,6 +491,18 @@ gst_install_plugins_get_helper (void)
   return helper;
 }
 
+static gboolean
+ptr_array_contains_string (GPtrArray * arr, const gchar * s)
+{
+  gint i;
+
+  for (i = 0; i < arr->len; ++i) {
+    if (strcmp ((const char *) g_ptr_array_index (arr, i), s) == 0)
+      return TRUE;
+  }
+  return FALSE;
+}
+
 static gboolean
 gst_install_plugins_spawn_child (gchar ** details,
     GstInstallPluginsContext * ctx, GPid * child_pid, gint * exit_status)
@@ -509,9 +523,10 @@ gst_install_plugins_spawn_child (gchar ** details,
     g_ptr_array_add (arr, xid_str);
   }
 
-  /* finally, add the detail strings */
+  /* finally, add the detail strings, but without duplicates */
   while (details != NULL && details[0] != NULL) {
-    g_ptr_array_add (arr, details[0]);
+    if (!ptr_array_contains_string (arr, details[0]))
+      g_ptr_array_add (arr, details[0]);
     ++details;
   }
 
diff --git a/tests/check/libs/pbutils.c b/tests/check/libs/pbutils.c
index a07858113e..61b8b60979 100644
--- a/tests/check/libs/pbutils.c
+++ b/tests/check/libs/pbutils.c
@@ -549,6 +549,7 @@ GST_START_TEST (test_pb_utils_install_plugins)
   GstInstallPluginsContext *ctx;
   GstInstallPluginsReturn ret;
   gchar *details[] = { "detail1", "detail2", NULL };
+  gchar *details_multi[] = { "detail1", "detail1", "detail2", NULL };
 
   ctx = gst_install_plugins_context_new ();
 
@@ -583,6 +584,15 @@ GST_START_TEST (test_pb_utils_install_plugins)
   test_pb_utils_install_plugins_do_callout (details, ctx, SCRIPT_WITH_XID,
       GST_INSTALL_PLUGINS_SUCCESS);
 
+  /* and make sure that duplicate detail strings get dropped */
+  test_pb_utils_install_plugins_do_callout (details_multi, NULL, SCRIPT_NO_XID,
+      GST_INSTALL_PLUGINS_NOT_FOUND);
+
+  /* and the same again with context */
+  gst_install_plugins_context_set_xid (ctx, 42);
+  test_pb_utils_install_plugins_do_callout (details_multi, ctx, SCRIPT_WITH_XID,
+      GST_INSTALL_PLUGINS_SUCCESS);
+
   /* and free the context now that we don't need it any longer */
   gst_install_plugins_context_free (ctx);