diff --git a/archivebox/tests/test_setup_script.py b/archivebox/tests/test_setup_script.py
index 04a56cd4..3911d7b3 100644
--- a/archivebox/tests/test_setup_script.py
+++ b/archivebox/tests/test_setup_script.py
@@ -21,6 +21,13 @@ def test_setup_script_never_recursively_chowns_collection_data():
     assert "chown -R" not in "\n".join(line for line in script.splitlines() if "archivebox/data" in line)
 
 
+def test_setup_script_gives_archivebox_user_ownership_of_runtime_parent_dirs():
+    script = SETUP_SCRIPT.read_text()
+
+    assert 'for path in "$HOME/.local" "$HOME/.local/share" "$HOME/.cache" "$HOME/.cache/archivebox"; do' in script
+    assert 'chown "$ARCHIVEBOX_SYSTEM_UID:$ARCHIVEBOX_SYSTEM_GID" "$path"' in script
+
+
 def test_setup_script_bootstraps_locked_abxpkg_version():
     script = SETUP_SCRIPT.read_text()
 
diff --git a/bin/setup.sh b/bin/setup.sh
index 826793f8..5bbd06e5 100755
--- a/bin/setup.sh
+++ b/bin/setup.sh
@@ -102,6 +102,13 @@ fix_root_install_ownership() {
         return 0
     fi
 
+    # Keep shared runtime parents writable after ArchiveBox drops privileges.
+    for path in "$HOME/.local" "$HOME/.local/share" "$HOME/.cache" "$HOME/.cache/archivebox"; do
+        if [ -e "$path" ]; then
+            chown "$ARCHIVEBOX_SYSTEM_UID:$ARCHIVEBOX_SYSTEM_GID" "$path"
+        fi
+    done
+
     for path in "$HOME/.local/bin" "$HOME/.local/share/uv" "$HOME/.cache/uv" "$ABXPKG_LIB_DIR"; do
         if [ -e "$path" ]; then
             chown -R "$ARCHIVEBOX_SYSTEM_UID:$ARCHIVEBOX_SYSTEM_GID" "$path"