diff --git a/lib/common.rb b/lib/common.rb
index fbc7b2aba..8260034b4 100644
--- a/lib/common.rb
+++ b/lib/common.rb
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ module Diaspora
 
     def parse_owner_from_xml(xml)
       doc = Nokogiri::XML(xml) { |cfg| cfg.noblanks }
-      email = doc.xpath("/person/email").text.to_s
+      email = doc.xpath("//person/email").text.to_s
       Friend.where(:email => email).first
     end