diff --git a/public/app/plugins/datasource/influxdb/components/QueryEditor.tsx b/public/app/plugins/datasource/influxdb/components/QueryEditor.tsx
index db3088c65fa..3501a793e37 100644
--- a/public/app/plugins/datasource/influxdb/components/QueryEditor.tsx
+++ b/public/app/plugins/datasource/influxdb/components/QueryEditor.tsx
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ import { FluxQueryEditor } from './FluxQueryEditor';
 import { RawInfluxQLEditor } from './RawInfluxQLEditor';
 import { Editor as VisualInfluxQLEditor } from './VisualInfluxQLEditor/Editor';
 import { QueryEditorModeSwitcher } from './QueryEditorModeSwitcher';
-import { buildRawQuery } from './queryUtils';
+import { buildRawQuery } from '../queryUtils';
 
 type Props = QueryEditorProps<InfluxDatasource, InfluxQuery, InfluxOptions>;
 
diff --git a/public/app/plugins/datasource/influxdb/components/VisualInfluxQLEditor/Editor.tsx b/public/app/plugins/datasource/influxdb/components/VisualInfluxQLEditor/Editor.tsx
index 6be64b57794..00b199b333f 100644
--- a/public/app/plugins/datasource/influxdb/components/VisualInfluxQLEditor/Editor.tsx
+++ b/public/app/plugins/datasource/influxdb/components/VisualInfluxQLEditor/Editor.tsx
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ import {
   removeGroupByPart,
   changeSelectPart,
   changeGroupByPart,
-} from '../queryUtils';
+} from '../../queryUtils';
 import { FormatAsSection } from './FormatAsSection';
 import { SectionLabel } from './SectionLabel';
 import { SectionFill } from './SectionFill';
diff --git a/public/app/plugins/datasource/influxdb/datasource.ts b/public/app/plugins/datasource/influxdb/datasource.ts
index 3ac840895e9..caa8bd0de92 100644
--- a/public/app/plugins/datasource/influxdb/datasource.ts
+++ b/public/app/plugins/datasource/influxdb/datasource.ts
@@ -31,6 +31,7 @@ import { getBackendSrv, DataSourceWithBackend, frameToMetricFindValue } from '@g
 import { Observable, throwError, of } from 'rxjs';
 import { FluxQueryEditor } from './components/FluxQueryEditor';
 import { catchError, map } from 'rxjs/operators';
+import { buildRawQuery } from './queryUtils';
 
 // we detect the field type based on the value-array
 function getFieldType(values: unknown[]): FieldType {
@@ -321,34 +322,11 @@ export default class InfluxDatasource extends DataSourceWithBackend<InfluxQuery,
   }
 
   targetContainsTemplate(target: any) {
-    if (this.isFlux) {
-      return this.templateSrv.variableExists(target.query);
-    }
+    // for flux-mode we just take target.query,
+    // for influxql-mode we use InfluxQueryModel to create the text-representation
+    const queryText = this.isFlux ? target.query : buildRawQuery(target);
 
-    // now we know it is an InfluxQL query.
-    // it can be either a raw-query or a not-raw-query
-
-    if (target.rawQuery) {
-      return this.templateSrv.variableExists(target.query);
-    }
-
-    // now we know it is an InfluxQL not-raw-query
-
-    for (const group of target.groupBy) {
-      for (const param of group.params) {
-        if (this.templateSrv.variableExists(param)) {
-          return true;
-        }
-      }
-    }
-
-    for (const i in target.tags) {
-      if (this.templateSrv.variableExists(target.tags[i].value)) {
-        return true;
-      }
-    }
-
-    return false;
+    return this.templateSrv.variableExists(queryText);
   }
 
   interpolateVariablesInQueries(queries: InfluxQuery[], scopedVars: ScopedVars): InfluxQuery[] {
diff --git a/public/app/plugins/datasource/influxdb/components/queryUtils.test.ts b/public/app/plugins/datasource/influxdb/queryUtils.test.ts
similarity index 99%
rename from public/app/plugins/datasource/influxdb/components/queryUtils.test.ts
rename to public/app/plugins/datasource/influxdb/queryUtils.test.ts
index e1535d53593..1dc9649a54b 100644
--- a/public/app/plugins/datasource/influxdb/components/queryUtils.test.ts
+++ b/public/app/plugins/datasource/influxdb/queryUtils.test.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 import { cloneDeep } from 'lodash';
-import { InfluxQuery } from '../types';
+import { InfluxQuery } from './types';
 import { buildRawQuery, normalizeQuery, changeSelectPart, changeGroupByPart } from './queryUtils';
 
 describe('InfluxDB query utils', () => {
diff --git a/public/app/plugins/datasource/influxdb/components/queryUtils.ts b/public/app/plugins/datasource/influxdb/queryUtils.ts
similarity index 97%
rename from public/app/plugins/datasource/influxdb/components/queryUtils.ts
rename to public/app/plugins/datasource/influxdb/queryUtils.ts
index dcdfeded4ee..9db6c905735 100644
--- a/public/app/plugins/datasource/influxdb/components/queryUtils.ts
+++ b/public/app/plugins/datasource/influxdb/queryUtils.ts
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 import { cloneDeep } from 'lodash';
-import InfluxQueryModel from '../influx_query_model';
-import { InfluxQuery } from '../types';
+import InfluxQueryModel from './influx_query_model';
+import { InfluxQuery } from './types';
 
 // FIXME: these functions are a beginning of a refactoring of influx_query_model.ts
 // into a simpler approach with full typescript types.