diff --git a/src/universal/bin/sbt-launch-lib.bash b/src/universal/bin/sbt-launch-lib.bash
index 59cf9e2a8..d3ef432f8 100755
--- a/src/universal/bin/sbt-launch-lib.bash
+++ b/src/universal/bin/sbt-launch-lib.bash
@@ -160,6 +160,7 @@ process_args () {
 syncPreloaded() {
   [[ -f "$HOME/.sbt/preloaded/org.scala-sbt/sbt/$init_sbt_version/jars/sbt.jar" ]] || {
     command -v rsync >/dev/null 2>&1 && {
+      mkdir -p "$HOME/.sbt/preloaded"
       rsync -a --ignore-existing "$sbt_home/lib/local-preloaded/" "$HOME/.sbt/preloaded"
     }
   }