diff --git a/src/singularity-desktop-session b/src/singularity-desktop-session
index 9de5c22..be48821 100755
--- a/src/singularity-desktop-session
+++ b/src/singularity-desktop-session
@@ -15,6 +15,11 @@ export XDG_DATA_DIRS="$HOME/.local/share/flatpak/exports/share:/var/lib/flatpak/
 export GSETTINGS_SCHEMA_DIR="$SHARE/glib-2.0/schemas"
 export GI_TYPELIB_PATH="$LIB/girepository-1.0${GI_TYPELIB_PATH:+:$GI_TYPELIB_PATH}"
 
+_USER_DIRS_FILE="${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-$HOME/.config}/user-dirs.dirs"
+if [ ! -f "$_USER_DIRS_FILE" ] && command -v xdg-user-dirs-update >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+    xdg-user-dirs-update >/dev/null 2>&1 || true
+fi
+
 dbus-update-activation-environment --systemd \
     DISPLAY WAYLAND_DISPLAY XDG_SESSION_TYPE XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP \
     XDG_RUNTIME_DIR DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS GDK_BACKEND GSK_RENDERER \