diff --git a/src/env/config_paths.rs b/src/env/config_paths.rs
index dbb7b8e8e..0d1cf0de9 100644
--- a/src/env/config_paths.rs
+++ b/src/env/config_paths.rs
@@ -57,6 +57,8 @@
                 let data_dir = base_path.join("share/fish/install");
                 #[cfg(not(feature = "embed-data"))]
                 let data_dir = base_path.join("share/fish");
+                let locale =
+                    (!cfg!(feature = "embed-data")).then(|| base_path.join("share/locale"));
                 paths = ConfigPaths {
                     // One obvious path is ~/.local (with fish in ~/.local/bin/).
                     // If we picked ~/.local/share/fish as our data path,
@@ -66,7 +68,7 @@
                     sysconf: base_path.join("etc/fish"),
                     doc: base_path.join("share/doc/fish"),
                     bin: Some(base_path.join("bin")),
-                    locale: Some(data_dir.join("locale")),
+                    locale,
                 }
             } else if exec_path.ends_with("fish") {
                 FLOG!(