diff --git a/electrum b/electrum
index c85635d77..67265d665 100755
--- a/electrum
+++ b/electrum
@@ -33,6 +33,9 @@ is_bundle = getattr(sys, 'frozen', False)
 is_local = not is_bundle and os.path.exists(os.path.join(script_dir, "setup-release.py"))
 is_android = 'ANDROID_DATA' in os.environ
 
+# move this back to gui/kivy/__init.py once plugins are moved
+os.environ['KIVY_DATA_DIR'] = os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__)) + '/gui/kivy/data/'
+
 if is_local or is_android:
     sys.path.insert(0, os.path.join(script_dir, 'packages'))
 elif is_bundle and sys.platform=='darwin':
diff --git a/gui/kivy/__init__.py b/gui/kivy/__init__.py
index ffba5c619..aa38a8ffe 100644
--- a/gui/kivy/__init__.py
+++ b/gui/kivy/__init__.py
@@ -27,7 +27,6 @@
 
 import sys
 import os
-os.environ['KIVY_DATA_DIR'] = os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__)) + '/data/'
 
 try:
     sys.argv = ['']