diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index e75af825e0..a20830ba55 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@ Thumbs.db
 /logs/
 /screenshots/
 /recordings/
+/user/
 /sync/
 /temp/
 # Customization is not supposed to be committed
diff --git a/apps/OpenSpace/ext/launcher/src/launcherwindow.cpp b/apps/OpenSpace/ext/launcher/src/launcherwindow.cpp
index 4d48860657..631c1bb27b 100644
--- a/apps/OpenSpace/ext/launcher/src/launcherwindow.cpp
+++ b/apps/OpenSpace/ext/launcher/src/launcherwindow.cpp
@@ -172,7 +172,6 @@ LauncherWindow::LauncherWindow(bool profileEnabled,
 
     setCentralWidget(createCentralWidget());
 
-
     populateProfilesList(globalConfig.profile);
     _profileBox->setEnabled(profileEnabled);
 
@@ -326,14 +325,6 @@ void LauncherWindow::populateProfilesList(std::string preset) {
         return;
     }
 
-    if (!std::filesystem::exists(_userProfilePath)) {
-        LINFOC(
-            "LauncherWindow",
-            fmt::format("Could not find user profile folder '{}'", _userProfilePath)
-        );
-        return;
-    }
-
     _profileBox->addItem(QString::fromStdString("--- User Profiles ---"));
     const QStandardItemModel* model = qobject_cast<const QStandardItemModel*>(_profileBox->model());
     model->item(_userAssetCount)->setEnabled(false);
@@ -373,30 +364,22 @@ void LauncherWindow::populateWindowConfigsList(std::string preset) {
 
     _windowConfigBox->clear();
 
-    if (std::filesystem::exists(_userConfigPath)) {
-        _userConfigCount = 0;
-        _windowConfigBox->addItem(QString::fromStdString("--- User Configurations ---"));
-        const QStandardItemModel* model = qobject_cast<const QStandardItemModel*>(_windowConfigBox->model());
-        model->item(_userConfigCount)->setEnabled(false);
-        ++_userConfigCount;
-        // Add all the files with the .xml extension to the dropdown
-        for (const fs::directory_entry& p : fs::directory_iterator(_userConfigPath)) {
-            if (p.path().extension() != ".xml") {
-                continue;
-            }
-            _windowConfigBox->addItem(QString::fromStdString(p.path().stem().string()));
-            ++_userConfigCount;
+    _userConfigCount = 0;
+    _windowConfigBox->addItem(QString::fromStdString("--- User Configurations ---"));
+    const QStandardItemModel* model = qobject_cast<const QStandardItemModel*>(_windowConfigBox->model());
+    model->item(_userConfigCount)->setEnabled(false);
+    ++_userConfigCount;
+    // Add all the files with the .xml extension to the dropdown
+    for (const fs::directory_entry& p : fs::directory_iterator(_userConfigPath)) {
+        if (p.path().extension() != ".xml") {
+            continue;
         }
-        _windowConfigBox->addItem(QString::fromStdString("--- OpenSpace Configurations ---"));
-        model = qobject_cast<const QStandardItemModel*>(_windowConfigBox->model());
-        model->item(_userConfigCount)->setEnabled(false);
-    }
-    else {
-        LINFOC(
-            "LauncherWindow",
-            fmt::format("Could not find config folder '{}'", _configPath)
-        );
+        _windowConfigBox->addItem(QString::fromStdString(p.path().stem().string()));
+         ++_userConfigCount;
     }
+    _windowConfigBox->addItem(QString::fromStdString("--- OpenSpace Configurations ---"));
+    model = qobject_cast<const QStandardItemModel*>(_windowConfigBox->model());
+    model->item(_userConfigCount)->setEnabled(false);
 
     if (std::filesystem::exists(_configPath)) {
         // Add all the files with the .xml extension to the dropdown
diff --git a/apps/OpenSpace/main.cpp b/apps/OpenSpace/main.cpp
index 06ba02a6a2..6330167b4a 100644
--- a/apps/OpenSpace/main.cpp
+++ b/apps/OpenSpace/main.cpp
@@ -1162,7 +1162,6 @@ int main(int argc, char* argv[]) {
 
     global::openSpaceEngine->registerPathTokens();
 
-
     bool hasSGCTConfig = false;
     bool hasProfile = false;
     std::string sgctFunctionName;
@@ -1178,6 +1177,9 @@ int main(int argc, char* argv[]) {
         sgctFunctionName
     );
 
+    //TODO consider LFATAL if ${USER} doens't exist rather then recurisve create.
+    global::openSpaceEngine->createUserDirectoriesIfNecessary();
+
     // (abock, 2020-12-07)  For some reason on Apple the keyboard handler in CEF will call
     // the Qt one even if the QApplication was destroyed, leading to invalid memory
     // access.  The only way we could fix this for the release was to keep the
diff --git a/include/openspace/engine/openspaceengine.h b/include/openspace/engine/openspaceengine.h
index 2710a709f3..68843243ca 100644
--- a/include/openspace/engine/openspaceengine.h
+++ b/include/openspace/engine/openspaceengine.h
@@ -99,6 +99,7 @@ public:
 
     void writeSceneDocumentation();
     void writeStaticDocumentation();
+    void createUserDirectoriesIfNecessary();
 
     /**
      * Returns the Lua library that contains all Lua functions available to affect the
diff --git a/src/engine/openspaceengine.cpp b/src/engine/openspaceengine.cpp
index 388efdbfc3..7c306ddc2d 100644
--- a/src/engine/openspaceengine.cpp
+++ b/src/engine/openspaceengine.cpp
@@ -220,6 +220,7 @@ void OpenSpaceEngine::initialize() {
     }
 
 
+
     // Initialize the requested logs from the configuration file
     // We previously initialized the LogManager with a console log to provide some logging
     // until we know which logs should be added
@@ -953,6 +954,23 @@ void OpenSpaceEngine::writeStaticDocumentation() {
     }
 }
 
+void OpenSpaceEngine::createUserDirectoriesIfNecessary() {
+    LTRACE(absPath("${USER}"));
+
+    if (!std::filesystem::exists(absPath("${USER_ASSETS}"))) {
+        FileSys.createDirectory(absPath("${USER_ASSETS}"),
+            ghoul::filesystem::FileSystem::Recursive::Yes);
+    }
+    if (!std::filesystem::exists(absPath("${USER_PROFILES}"))) {
+        FileSys.createDirectory(absPath("${USER_PROFILES}"),
+            ghoul::filesystem::FileSystem::Recursive::Yes);
+    }
+    if (!std::filesystem::exists(absPath("${USER_CONFIG}"))) {
+        FileSys.createDirectory(absPath("${USER_CONFIG}"),
+            ghoul::filesystem::FileSystem::Recursive::Yes);
+    }
+}
+
 void OpenSpaceEngine::runGlobalCustomizationScripts() {
     ZoneScoped
 
diff --git a/user/.gitignore b/user/.gitignore
deleted file mode 100644
index 76bedaeabb..0000000000
--- a/user/.gitignore
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,5 +0,0 @@
-# Ignore everything in this directory
-*
-# Except this file
-!.gitignore
-