Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide techniques for making multi-transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state data scheduling more reliable. A method that may be performed by a user equipment (UE) includes receiving, from a base station (BS), a first signal indicative of a plurality of demodulation reference signal (DMRS) ports. The method may also include receiving, from the BS, a second signal indicative of a first spatial state of a physical channel and a second spatial state of the physical channel. The method may also include communicating data over the second subset and not the first subset, based on which of the plurality of DMRS ports are part of the first subset and which of the plurality of DMRS ports are part of the second subset.