diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index a4e0e41d..767b716e 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ FROM node:lts-alpine AS node_builder
 
 WORKDIR /app
 COPY ui ./
-RUN if [ ! -d /app/exported ]; then yarn install --production --prefer-offline --frozen-lockfile && yarn run generate; else echo "Skipping UI build, already built."; fi
+RUN if [ ! -f "/app/exported/index.html" ]; then yarn install --production --prefer-offline --frozen-lockfile && yarn run generate; else echo "Skipping UI build, already built."; fi
 
 FROM python:3.11-alpine AS python_builder
 
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ FROM python:3.11-alpine
 ARG TZ=UTC
 ARG USER_ID=1000
 ENV IN_CONTAINER=1
-ENV UMASK=022
+ENV UMASK=0002
 ENV YTP_CONFIG_PATH=/config
 ENV YTP_TEMP_PATH=/tmp
 ENV YTP_DOWNLOAD_PATH=/downloads
diff --git a/app/library/Utils.py b/app/library/Utils.py
index ab82ca81..a199ffe8 100644
--- a/app/library/Utils.py
+++ b/app/library/Utils.py
@@ -26,7 +26,6 @@ IGNORED_KEYS: tuple[str] = (
     "download_archive",
 )
 YTDLP_INFO_CLS: yt_dlp.YoutubeDL = None
-OS_ALT_SEP: list[str] = list(sep for sep in [os.sep, os.path.altsep] if sep is not None and sep != "/")
 
 
 class StreamingError(Exception):
@@ -119,6 +118,9 @@ def calcDownloadPath(basePath: str, folder: str | None = None, createPath: bool
     if not folder:
         return basePath
 
+    if folder.startswith("/"):
+        folder = folder[1:]
+
     realBasePath = os.path.realpath(basePath)
     download_path = os.path.realpath(os.path.join(basePath, folder))
 
diff --git a/entrypoint.sh b/entrypoint.sh
index 94a38918..2706d0ee 100644
--- a/entrypoint.sh
+++ b/entrypoint.sh
@@ -19,4 +19,17 @@ if [ ! -w "${YTP_CONFIG_PATH}" ]; then
   exit 1
 fi
 
+if [ ! -w "${YTP_DOWNLOAD_PATH}" ]; then
+  CH_USER=$(stat -c "%u" "${YTP_DOWNLOAD_PATH}")
+  CH_GRP=$(stat -c "%g" "${YTP_DOWNLOAD_PATH}")
+  echo_err "ERROR: Unable to write to '${YTP_DOWNLOAD_PATH}' downloads directory. Current user id '${UID}' while directory owner is '${CH_USER}'."
+  echo_err "[Running under docker]"
+  echo_err "change docker-compose.yaml user: to user:\"${CH_USER}:${CH_GRP}\""
+  echo_err "Run the following command to change the directory ownership"
+  echo_err "chown -R \"${CH_USER}:${CH_GRP}\" ./config"
+  echo_err "[Running under podman]"
+  echo_err "change docker-compose.yaml user: to user:\"0:0\""
+  exit 1
+fi
+
 exec "${@}"