diff --git a/src/main/java/net/preibisch/mvrecon/fiji/plugin/queryXML/GenericLoadParseQueryXML.java b/src/main/java/net/preibisch/mvrecon/fiji/plugin/queryXML/GenericLoadParseQueryXML.java
index bf1ac3af..d88b5dc6 100644
--- a/src/main/java/net/preibisch/mvrecon/fiji/plugin/queryXML/GenericLoadParseQueryXML.java
+++ b/src/main/java/net/preibisch/mvrecon/fiji/plugin/queryXML/GenericLoadParseQueryXML.java
@@ -314,7 +314,7 @@ public boolean queryXML(
 		// try to parse the file anyways
 		boolean success;
 
-		success = tryParsing( URITools.toURI( xmlURI ), true );
+		success = tryParsing( xmlURI.equals( "define" ) ? URI.create( "define" ) : URITools.toURI( xmlURI ), true );
 
 		if ( buttonText != null && xmlURI.toLowerCase().equals( "define" ) && buttonText.get( 0 ).equals( "Define a new dataset" ) )
 		{