diff --git a/tests/lib/TestCase.php b/tests/lib/TestCase.php
index 6cadf9693c..066a7d5b13 100644
--- a/tests/lib/TestCase.php
+++ b/tests/lib/TestCase.php
@@ -459,15 +459,27 @@ abstract class TestCase extends \PHPUnit\Framework\TestCase {
 		}
 	}
 
+	protected function getGroupAnnotations(): array {
+		if (method_exists($this, 'getAnnotations')) {
+			$annotations = $this->getAnnotations();
+			return $annotations['class']['group'] ?? [];
+		}
+
+		$r = new \ReflectionClass($this);
+		$doc = $r->getDocComment();
+		preg_match_all('#@group\s+(.*?)\n#s', $doc, $annotations);
+		return $annotations[1] ?? [];
+	}
+
 	protected function IsDatabaseAccessAllowed() {
 		// on travis-ci.org we allow database access in any case - otherwise
 		// this will break all apps right away
 		if (true == getenv('TRAVIS')) {
 			return true;
 		}
-		$annotations = $this->getAnnotations();
-		if (isset($annotations['class']['group'])) {
-			if (in_array('DB', $annotations['class']['group']) || in_array('SLOWDB', $annotations['class']['group'])) {
+		$annotations = $this->getGroupAnnotations();
+		if (isset($annotations)) {
+			if (in_array('DB', $annotations) || in_array('SLOWDB', $annotations)) {
 				return true;
 			}
 		}