diff --git a/aurral/Dockerfile b/aurral/Dockerfile
index 75ac4b458e..2d069993ff 100644
--- a/aurral/Dockerfile
+++ b/aurral/Dockerfile
@@ -22,10 +22,7 @@ ENV AURRAL_DATA_DIR=/config/data \
 
 COPY rootfs /
 
-RUN chmod a+x /etc/services.d/aurral/run \
-    && mkdir -p /config/data
+RUN chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/docker-entrypoint.sh
 
-# The upstream image sets ENTRYPOINT ["docker-entrypoint.sh"].
-# Override it so s6-overlay (/init) owns startup instead.
-ENTRYPOINT ["/init"]
-CMD []
+ENTRYPOINT ["/usr/local/bin/docker-entrypoint.sh"]
+CMD ["node", "server.js"]
diff --git a/aurral/rootfs/usr/local/bin/docker-entrypoint.sh b/aurral/rootfs/usr/local/bin/docker-entrypoint.sh
index 987a2e322c..c1cad20155 100644
--- a/aurral/rootfs/usr/local/bin/docker-entrypoint.sh
+++ b/aurral/rootfs/usr/local/bin/docker-entrypoint.sh
@@ -1,6 +1,14 @@
 #!/bin/sh
-# Passthrough entrypoint — s6-overlay (via HA init: false) handles init.
-# The upstream entrypoint tries to chown /app/backend/data which fails
-# on HA-mounted host paths. We bypass it entirely and use AURRAL_DATA_DIR
-# to redirect the data directory instead.
+set -e
+
+# Create persistent data directories
+mkdir -p "${AURRAL_DATA_DIR:-/config/data}"
+mkdir -p "${AURRAL_DATA_DIR:-/config/data}/image-proxy"
+mkdir -p "${DOWNLOAD_FOLDER:-/share/aurral/downloads}"
+mkdir -p "${WEEKLY_FLOW_FOLDER:-/share/aurral/downloads/weekly-flow}"
+
+# Pre-create /app/backend/data as a real dir so node can write to it
+# (symlink approach fails when the target isn't mounted yet)
+mkdir -p /app/backend/data
+
 exec "$@"