diff --git a/standalone/android/runshell b/standalone/android/runshell
index a761a5065f..7bebd0cf3b 100755
--- a/standalone/android/runshell
+++ b/standalone/android/runshell
@@ -95,6 +95,9 @@ run () {
 	# Needs to be as short a path as possible, for ssh sockets.
 	GIT_ANNEX_TMP_DIR=$base/tmp
 	export GIT_ANNEX_TMP_DIR
+	# /tmp probably doesn't exist, so also use it as TMPDIR
+	TMPDIR=$GIT_ANNEX_TMP_DIR
+	export TMPDIR
 	
 	if $cmd test "$1"; then
 		cmd="$1"