diff --git a/aurral/Dockerfile b/aurral/Dockerfile
index 2d069993ff..97b0a42019 100644
--- a/aurral/Dockerfile
+++ b/aurral/Dockerfile
@@ -20,6 +20,10 @@ ENV AURRAL_DATA_DIR=/config/data \
     DOWNLOAD_FOLDER=/share/aurral/downloads \
     WEEKLY_FLOW_FOLDER=/share/aurral/downloads/weekly-flow
 
+# Pre-create the image-proxy directory at build time so the node process
+# (which may not run as root) can write to it without a mkdir at runtime.
+RUN mkdir -p /app/backend/data/image-proxy && chmod -R 777 /app/backend/data
+
 COPY rootfs /
 
 RUN chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/docker-entrypoint.sh