diff --git a/package/mender/mender.mk b/package/mender/mender.mk
index a5cece7044..3203df8a47 100644
--- a/package/mender/mender.mk
+++ b/package/mender/mender.mk
@@ -49,6 +49,8 @@ define MENDER_INSTALL_CONFIG_FILES
 		$(INSTALL) -D -m 0755 $(@D)/support/mender-inventory-$(f) \
 			$(TARGET_DIR)/usr/share/mender/inventory/mender-inventory-$(f)
 	)
+
+	ln -snf /var/run/mender $(TARGET_DIR)/var/lib/mender
 endef
 
 MENDER_POST_INSTALL_TARGET_HOOKS += MENDER_INSTALL_CONFIG_FILES
diff --git a/package/mender/mender.service b/package/mender/mender.service
index 9ede55acb5..8b60a4f1aa 100644
--- a/package/mender/mender.service
+++ b/package/mender/mender.service
@@ -6,7 +6,17 @@ After=systemd-resolved.service
 Type=idle
 User=root
 Group=root
-ExecStartPre=/bin/mkdir -p -m 0700 /data/mender
+ExecStartPre=/bin/sh -c '\
+if [ -L /var/lib/mender \
+     -a "$(readlink /var/lib/mender)" = "/var/run/mender" ]; then \
+    if rm -f /var/lib/mender >/dev/null 2>&1; then \
+        mkdir -p /var/lib/mender; \
+    else \
+        echo "No persistent location to store mender data. Data will be lost\
+        echo "at reboot. Are you sure this is what you want to do?"; \
+        mkdir -p "$(readlink /var/lib/mender)"; \
+    fi; \
+fi'
 ExecStart=/usr/bin/mender -daemon
 Restart=on-abort