diff --git a/tools/notify-send.c b/tools/notify-send.c
index a72dc94..926cd11 100644
--- a/tools/notify-send.c
+++ b/tools/notify-send.c
@@ -325,6 +325,12 @@ main (int argc, char *argv[])
         if (transient) {
                 notify_notification_set_hint (notify, "transient",
                                               g_variant_new_boolean (TRUE));
+
+                if (!server_has_capability ("persistence")) {
+                        g_debug ("Persistence is not supported by the "
+                                 "notifications server. "
+                                 "All notifications are transient.");
+                }
         }
 
         g_free (body);