diff --git a/src/core/manager-serialize.c b/src/core/manager-serialize.c
index bdf336a6de5..0b3def3dabe 100644
--- a/src/core/manager-serialize.c
+++ b/src/core/manager-serialize.c
@@ -143,17 +143,9 @@ int manager_serialize(
         }
 
         if (m->user_lookup_fds[0] >= 0) {
-                int copy0, copy1;
-
-                copy0 = fdset_put_dup(fds, m->user_lookup_fds[0]);
-                if (copy0 < 0)
-                        return log_error_errno(copy0, "Failed to add user lookup fd to serialization: %m");
-
-                copy1 = fdset_put_dup(fds, m->user_lookup_fds[1]);
-                if (copy1 < 0)
-                        return log_error_errno(copy1, "Failed to add user lookup fd to serialization: %m");
-
-                (void) serialize_item_format(f, "user-lookup", "%i %i", copy0, copy1);
+                r = serialize_fd_many(f, fds, "user-lookup", m->user_lookup_fds, 2);
+                if (r < 0)
+                        return r;
         }
 
         (void) serialize_ratelimit(f, "dump-ratelimit", &m->dump_ratelimit);
@@ -478,16 +470,13 @@ int manager_deserialize(Manager *m, FILE *f, FDSet *fds) {
                         }
 
                 } else if ((val = startswith(l, "user-lookup="))) {
-                        int fd0, fd1;
 
-                        if (sscanf(val, "%i %i", &fd0, &fd1) != 2 || fd0 < 0 || fd1 < 0 || fd0 == fd1 || !fdset_contains(fds, fd0) || !fdset_contains(fds, fd1))
-                                log_notice("Failed to parse user lookup fd, ignoring: %s", val);
-                        else {
-                                m->user_lookup_event_source = sd_event_source_disable_unref(m->user_lookup_event_source);
-                                safe_close_pair(m->user_lookup_fds);
-                                m->user_lookup_fds[0] = fdset_remove(fds, fd0);
-                                m->user_lookup_fds[1] = fdset_remove(fds, fd1);
-                        }
+                        m->user_lookup_event_source = sd_event_source_disable_unref(m->user_lookup_event_source);
+                        safe_close_pair(m->user_lookup_fds);
+
+                        r = deserialize_fd_many(fds, val, 2, m->user_lookup_fds);
+                        if (r < 0)
+                                log_warning_errno(r, "Failed to parse user-lookup fds: \"%s\", ignoring: %m", val);
 
                 } else if ((val = startswith(l, "dynamic-user=")))
                         dynamic_user_deserialize_one(m, val, fds, NULL);