diff --git a/src/main/java/com/googlesource/gerrit/plugins/websession/flatfile/FlatFileWebSessionCache.java b/src/main/java/com/googlesource/gerrit/plugins/websession/flatfile/FlatFileWebSessionCache.java
index 11e5b78..1f32053 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/googlesource/gerrit/plugins/websession/flatfile/FlatFileWebSessionCache.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/googlesource/gerrit/plugins/websession/flatfile/FlatFileWebSessionCache.java
@@ -59,7 +59,8 @@
     dir = new File(cfg.getFromGerritConfig("websession-flatfile")
         .getString("directory", site.site_path + "/websessions"));
     if (!dir.exists()) {
-      log.error(dir.getAbsolutePath() + " not found");
+      log.info(dir + " not found. Creating it.");
+      dir.mkdir();
     }
   }
 
@@ -147,10 +148,6 @@
 
   @Override
   public void put(String key, Val value) {
-    if (!dir.exists()) {
-      dir.mkdir();
-    }
-
     File tempFile = null;
     OutputStream fileStream = null;
     ObjectOutputStream objStream = null;