diff --git a/upgrade_gitea b/upgrade_gitea
index 79dd0c5..05fc604 100644
--- a/upgrade_gitea
+++ b/upgrade_gitea
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ set -ex
 
 BINDIR=/srv/gitea/bin
 GITEA_HOME=/srv/gitea
+export GITEA_WORK_DIR=/srv/gitea
 
 cd $BINDIR