diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index 12cc1381..59c17812 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -290,7 +290,6 @@ WORKDIR "$DATA_DIR"
 ENV IN_DOCKER=True \
     DISPLAY=novnc:0.0 \
     CUSTOM_TEMPLATES_DIR=/data/templates \
-    CHROME_USER_DATA_DIR=/data/personas/Default/chromium \
     GOOGLE_API_KEY=no \
     GOOGLE_DEFAULT_CLIENT_ID=no \
     GOOGLE_DEFAULT_CLIENT_SECRET=no \
diff --git a/archivebox/config.py b/archivebox/config.py
index ed484d65..0151c3c2 100644
--- a/archivebox/config.py
+++ b/archivebox/config.py
@@ -1296,7 +1296,7 @@ def check_system_config(config: ConfigDict=CONFIG) -> None:
 
     # stderr('[i] Using Chrome binary: {}'.format(shutil.which(CHROME_BINARY) or CHROME_BINARY))
     # stderr('[i] Using Chrome data dir: {}'.format(os.path.abspath(CHROME_USER_DATA_DIR)))
-    if config['CHROME_USER_DATA_DIR'] is not None:
+    if config['CHROME_USER_DATA_DIR'] is not None and Path(config['CHROME_USER_DATA_DIR']).exists():
         if not (Path(config['CHROME_USER_DATA_DIR']) / 'Default').exists():
             stderr('[X] Could not find profile "Default" in CHROME_USER_DATA_DIR.', color='red')
             stderr(f'    {config["CHROME_USER_DATA_DIR"]}')
@@ -1311,6 +1311,8 @@ def check_system_config(config: ConfigDict=CONFIG) -> None:
             # hard error is too annoying here, instead just set it to nothing
             # raise SystemExit(2)
             config['CHROME_USER_DATA_DIR'] = None
+    else:
+        config['CHROME_USER_DATA_DIR'] = None
 
 
 def check_dependencies(config: ConfigDict=CONFIG, show_help: bool=True) -> None: