diff --git a/kittens/desktop_ui/portal.go b/kittens/desktop_ui/portal.go
index c9366627c..d8b16d42b 100644
--- a/kittens/desktop_ui/portal.go
+++ b/kittens/desktop_ui/portal.go
@@ -313,12 +313,24 @@ func show_settings(opts *ShowSettingsOptions) (err error) {
 }
 
 var DataDirs = sync.OnceValue(func() (ans []string) {
-	d := os.Getenv("XDG_DATA_DIRS")
-	if d == "" {
-		d = "/usr/local/share/:/usr/share/"
+	// $XDG_DATA_DIRS defines the preference-ordered set of base directories
+	// to search for data files **in addition to the $XDG_DATA_HOME** base
+	// directory. The directories in $XDG_DATA_DIRS should be separated with
+	// a colon ':'.
+	// https://specifications.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/0.8/#variables
+
+	data_dirs := os.Getenv("XDG_DATA_DIRS")
+	if data_dirs == "" {
+		data_dirs = "/usr/local/share/:/usr/share/"
 	}
-	all := []string{os.Getenv("XDG_DATA_HOME")}
-	all = append(all, strings.Split(d, ":")...)
+
+	data_home := os.Getenv("XDG_DATA_HOME")
+	if data_home == "" {
+		data_home = os.Getenv("HOME") + "/.local/share"
+	}
+
+	all := []string{data_home}
+	all = append(all, strings.Split(data_dirs, ":")...)
 	seen := map[string]bool{}
 	for _, x := range all {
 		if !seen[x] {
@@ -381,21 +393,13 @@ func enable_portal() (err error) {
 	}
 	portals_dir := ""
 	for _, x := range WritableDataDirs() {
+		// Find-or-create the first available xdg-desktop-portals/portals directory
 		q := filepath.Join(x, "xdg-desktop-portal", "portals")
-		if unix.Access(q, unix.W_OK) == nil && IsDir(q) {
+		if (unix.Access(q, unix.W_OK) == nil && IsDir(q)) || (os.MkdirAll(q, 0o755) == nil) {
 			portals_dir = q
 			break
 		}
 	}
-	if portals_dir == "" {
-		for _, x := range WritableDataDirs() {
-			q := filepath.Join(x, "xdg-desktop-portal", "portals")
-			if err := os.MkdirAll(q, 0o755); err == nil {
-				portals_dir = q
-				break
-			}
-		}
-	}
 	if portals_dir == "" {
 		return fmt.Errorf("Could not find any writable portals directories. Make sure XDG_DATA_HOME is set and point to a directory for which you have write permission.")
 	}