diff --git a/src/prestart.js b/src/prestart.js
index cb077d1546..49f6336499 100644
--- a/src/prestart.js
+++ b/src/prestart.js
@@ -69,6 +69,7 @@ function loadConfig(configFile) {
 	nconf.set('base_templates_path', path.join(nconf.get('themes_path'), 'nodebb-theme-persona/templates'));
 
 	nconf.set('upload_path', path.resolve(nconf.get('base_dir'), nconf.get('upload_path')));
+	nconf.set('upload_url', '/assets/uploads');
 
 	if (nconf.get('url')) {
 		nconf.set('url_parsed', url.parse(nconf.get('url')));
diff --git a/src/start.js b/src/start.js
index 53893d44b8..b2b4ceebc9 100644
--- a/src/start.js
+++ b/src/start.js
@@ -99,7 +99,6 @@ function setupConfigs() {
 	nconf.set('use_port', !!urlObject.port);
 	nconf.set('relative_path', relativePath);
 	nconf.set('port', nconf.get('PORT') || nconf.get('port') || urlObject.port || (nconf.get('PORT_ENV_VAR') ? nconf.get(nconf.get('PORT_ENV_VAR')) : false) || 4567);
-	nconf.set('upload_url', '/assets/uploads');
 }
 
 function printStartupInfo() {