diff --git a/meta/lib/oeqa/core/target/ssh.py b/meta/lib/oeqa/core/target/ssh.py
index 51079075b5bd..dc17ceecd74d 100644
--- a/meta/lib/oeqa/core/target/ssh.py
+++ b/meta/lib/oeqa/core/target/ssh.py
@@ -40,8 +40,12 @@ class OESSHTarget(OETarget):
                 '-o', 'StrictHostKeyChecking=no',
                 '-o', 'LogLevel=ERROR'
                 ]
+        scp_options = [
+                '-O', # Allow legacy option for images not containing SFTP server
+                '-r'
+        ]
         self.ssh = ['ssh', '-l', self.user ] + ssh_options
-        self.scp = ['scp'] + ssh_options
+        self.scp = ['scp'] + ssh_options + scp_options
         if port:
             self.ssh = self.ssh + [ '-p', port ]
             self.scp = self.scp + [ '-P', port ]