diff --git a/lntest/itest/lnd_test.go b/lntest/itest/lnd_test.go
index dfe5ee100..69de39145 100644
--- a/lntest/itest/lnd_test.go
+++ b/lntest/itest/lnd_test.go
@@ -13675,9 +13675,9 @@ func testChannelBackupUpdates(net *lntest.NetworkHarness, t *harnessTest) {
 		}
 	}
 
-	// As these two channels were just open, we should've got two
-	// notifications for channel backups.
-	assertBackupNtfns(2)
+	// As these two channels were just opened, we should've got two times
+	// the pending and open notifications for channel backups.
+	assertBackupNtfns(2 * 2)
 
 	// The on disk file should also exactly match the latest backup that we
 	// have.
diff --git a/rpcserver.go b/rpcserver.go
index f4e13cd65..d7a27d90d 100644
--- a/rpcserver.go
+++ b/rpcserver.go
@@ -5605,7 +5605,7 @@ func (r *rpcServer) SubscribeChannelBackups(req *lnrpc.ChannelBackupSubscription
 	updateStream lnrpc.Lightning_SubscribeChannelBackupsServer) error {
 
 	// First, we'll subscribe to the primary channel notifier so we can
-	// obtain events for new opened/closed channels.
+	// obtain events for new pending/opened/closed channels.
 	chanSubscription, err := r.server.channelNotifier.SubscribeChannelEvents()
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
@@ -5622,9 +5622,10 @@ func (r *rpcServer) SubscribeChannelBackups(req *lnrpc.ChannelBackupSubscription
 			switch e.(type) {
 
 			// We only care about new/closed channels, so we'll
-			// skip any events for pending/active/inactive channels.
-			case channelnotifier.PendingOpenChannelEvent:
-				continue
+			// skip any events for active/inactive channels.
+			// To make the subscription behave the same way as the
+			// synchronous call and the file based backup, we also
+			// include pending channels in the update.
 			case channelnotifier.ActiveChannelEvent:
 				continue
 			case channelnotifier.InactiveChannelEvent: