diff --git a/tests/python/driver/tvmc/test_autotuner.py b/tests/python/driver/tvmc/test_autotuner.py
index a1915a0251e96..66017823a6699 100644
--- a/tests/python/driver/tvmc/test_autotuner.py
+++ b/tests/python/driver/tvmc/test_autotuner.py
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@
 from unittest import mock
 
 from os import path
+from pathlib import Path
 
 from tvm import autotvm
 from tvm.driver import tvmc
@@ -163,9 +164,16 @@ def test_tune_tasks__invalid_tuner(onnx_mnist, tmpdir_factory):
 def test_tune_rpc_tracker_parsing(mock_load_model, mock_tune_model, mock_auto_scheduler):
     cli_args = mock.MagicMock()
     cli_args.rpc_tracker = "10.0.0.1:9999"
+    # FILE is not used but it's set to a valid value here to avoid it being set
+    # by mock to a MagicMock class, which won't pass the checks for valid FILE.
+    fake_input_file = "./fake_input_file.tflite"
+    Path(fake_input_file).touch()
+    cli_args.FILE = fake_input_file
 
     tvmc.autotuner.drive_tune(cli_args)
 
+    os.remove(fake_input_file)
+
     mock_tune_model.assert_called_once()
 
     # inspect the mock call, to search for specific arguments