diff --git a/src/scripting/genericscriptedconfig.cpp b/src/scripting/genericscriptedconfig.cpp
index 0be341631b..9b23154577 100644
--- a/src/scripting/genericscriptedconfig.cpp
+++ b/src/scripting/genericscriptedconfig.cpp
@@ -30,9 +30,18 @@ QObject *GenericScriptedConfigFactory::create(const char *iface, QWidget *parent
     Q_UNUSED(iface)
     Q_UNUSED(parent)
     Q_UNUSED(keyword)
-    Q_ASSERT(!args.isEmpty());
 
-    const QString pluginId = args.first().toString();
+    // the plugin id is in the args when created by desktop effects kcm or EffectsModel in general
+    QString pluginId = args.isEmpty() ? QString() : args.first().toString();
+
+    // If we do not get the id of the effect we want to load from the args, we have to check our metadata.
+    // This can be the case if the factory gets loaded from a KPluginSelector
+    // the plugin id is in plugin factory metadata when created by scripts kcm
+    // (because it uses kpluginselector, which doesn't pass the plugin id as the first arg),
+    // can be dropped once the scripts kcm is ported to qtquick (because then we could pass the plugin id via the args)
+    if (pluginId.isEmpty()) {
+        pluginId = metaData().pluginId();
+    }
     if (pluginId.startsWith(QLatin1String("kwin4_effect_"))) {
         return new ScriptedEffectConfig(pluginId, parentWidget, args);
     } else {