diff --git a/tests/regressiontests/logging_tests/tests.py b/tests/regressiontests/logging_tests/tests.py
index 35968066bc..080bd03ab6 100644
--- a/tests/regressiontests/logging_tests/tests.py
+++ b/tests/regressiontests/logging_tests/tests.py
@@ -145,7 +145,9 @@ class WarningLoggerTests(TestCase):
         # If tests are invoke with "-Wall" (or any -W flag actually) then
         # warning logging gets disabled (see django/conf/__init__.py). However,
         # these tests expect warnings to be logged, so manually force warnings
-        # to the logs.
+        # to the logs. Use getattr() here because the logging capture state is
+        # undocumented and (I assume) brittle.
+        self._old_capture_state = bool(getattr(logging, '_warnings_showwarning', False))
         logging.captureWarnings(True)
 
         # this convoluted setup is to avoid printing this deprecation to
@@ -164,7 +166,7 @@ class WarningLoggerTests(TestCase):
             self.logger.handlers[i].stream = self.old_streams[i]
 
         # Reset warnings state.
-        logging.captureWarnings(False)
+        logging.captureWarnings(self._old_capture_state)
 
     @override_settings(DEBUG=True)
     def test_warnings_capture(self):