diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index e20de7b15..023767f02 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@
 /lbry-app
 /lbry-venv
 /static/daemon/lbrynet*
+/static/locales
 /daemon/build
 /daemon/venv
 /daemon/requirements.txt
diff --git a/src/renderer/app.js b/src/renderer/app.js
index fb64e5a77..ef3f24ce9 100644
--- a/src/renderer/app.js
+++ b/src/renderer/app.js
@@ -1,12 +1,15 @@
-import store from "store.js";
+import store from "store";
 import { remote } from "electron";
+import path from "path";
 
 const env = process.env.NODE_ENV || "production";
 const config = {
   ...require(`./config/${env}`),
 };
 const i18n = require("y18n")({
-  directory: `${remote.app.getAppPath()}/locales`,
+  directory: path
+    .join(remote.app.getAppPath(), "/../static/locales")
+    .replace(/\\/g, "\\\\"),
   updateFiles: false,
   locale: "en",
 });
diff --git a/src/renderer/extractLocals.js b/src/renderer/extractLocals.js
index 328e53294..9e4746d3e 100644
--- a/src/renderer/extractLocals.js
+++ b/src/renderer/extractLocals.js
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 const extract = require("i18n-extract");
 const fs = require("fs");
 
-const dir = `${__dirname}/../../dist/locales`;
+const dir = `${__dirname}/../../static/locales`;
 const path = `${dir}/en.json`;
 
 if (!fs.existsSync(dir)) {