diff --git a/tests/unit_tests/CMakeLists.txt b/tests/unit_tests/CMakeLists.txt
index 9c58536c9..249dbdbe8 100644
--- a/tests/unit_tests/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/tests/unit_tests/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -103,6 +103,8 @@ if (NOT MSVC)
       COMPILE_FLAGS " -Wno-undef -Wno-sign-compare")
 endif ()
 
+SET_PROPERTY(SOURCE main.cpp PROPERTY COMPILE_FLAGS -DDEFAULT_DATA_DIR="\\"${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/tests/data\\"")
+
 SET_PROPERTY(SOURCE memwipe.cpp PROPERTY COMPILE_FLAGS -Ofast)
 
 add_test(
diff --git a/tests/unit_tests/main.cpp b/tests/unit_tests/main.cpp
index 85c6cbed5..13b62cbb4 100644
--- a/tests/unit_tests/main.cpp
+++ b/tests/unit_tests/main.cpp
@@ -61,8 +61,8 @@ int main(int argc, char** argv)
   ::testing::InitGoogleTest(&argc, argv);
 
   po::options_description desc_options("Command line options");
-  const command_line::arg_descriptor<std::string> arg_data_dir = { "data-dir", "Data files directory" };
-  command_line::add_arg(desc_options, arg_data_dir, "");
+  const command_line::arg_descriptor<std::string> arg_data_dir = { "data-dir", "Data files directory", DEFAULT_DATA_DIR };
+  command_line::add_arg(desc_options, arg_data_dir);
 
   po::variables_map vm;
   bool r = command_line::handle_error_helper(desc_options, [&]()
@@ -74,12 +74,7 @@ int main(int argc, char** argv)
   if (! r)
     return 1;
 
-  if (command_line::is_arg_defaulted(vm, arg_data_dir))
-    unit_test::data_dir = boost::filesystem::canonical(boost::filesystem::path(epee::string_tools::get_current_module_folder()))
-                          .parent_path().parent_path().parent_path().parent_path()
-                          .append("tests").append("data");
-  else
-    unit_test::data_dir = command_line::get_arg(vm, arg_data_dir);
+  unit_test::data_dir = command_line::get_arg(vm, arg_data_dir);
 
   return RUN_ALL_TESTS();
 }