diff --git a/gio/gsettingsschema.c b/gio/gsettingsschema.c
index 15941f778..84c6962bc 100644
--- a/gio/gsettingsschema.c
+++ b/gio/gsettingsschema.c
@@ -321,6 +321,14 @@ try_prepend_dir (const gchar *directory)
     schema_sources = source;
 }
 
+static void
+try_prepend_data_dir (const gchar *directory)
+{
+  const gchar *dirname = g_build_filename (directory, "glib-2.0", "schemas", NULL);
+  try_prepend_dir (dirname);
+  g_free (dirname);
+}
+
 static void
 initialise_schema_sources (void)
 {
@@ -340,13 +348,9 @@ initialise_schema_sources (void)
       for (i = 0; dirs[i]; i++);
 
       while (i--)
-        {
-          gchar *dirname;
+        try_prepend_data_dir (dirs[i]);
 
-          dirname = g_build_filename (dirs[i], "glib-2.0", "schemas", NULL);
-          try_prepend_dir (dirname);
-          g_free (dirname);
-        }
+      try_prepend_data_dir (g_get_user_data_dir ());
 
       if ((path = g_getenv ("GSETTINGS_SCHEMA_DIR")) != NULL)
         try_prepend_dir (path);
diff --git a/gio/tests/gsettings.c b/gio/tests/gsettings.c
index b1bbd4ed1..18db38805 100644
--- a/gio/tests/gsettings.c
+++ b/gio/tests/gsettings.c
@@ -2613,6 +2613,7 @@ main (int argc, char *argv[])
       backend_set = g_getenv ("GSETTINGS_BACKEND") != NULL;
 
       g_setenv ("XDG_DATA_DIRS", ".", TRUE);
+      g_setenv ("XDG_DATA_HOME", ".", TRUE);
       g_setenv ("GSETTINGS_SCHEMA_DIR", ".", TRUE);
 
       if (!backend_set)