diff --git a/apps/common/__init__.py b/apps/common/__init__.py
index 9d177e93ed..1172d62f79 100644
--- a/apps/common/__init__.py
+++ b/apps/common/__init__.py
@@ -2,11 +2,10 @@ import tempfile
 
 from django.utils.translation import ugettext_lazy as _
 
-from common.conf import settings as common_settings
 from navigation.api import register_links
 
-TEMPORARY_DIRECTORY = common_settings.TEMPORARY_DIRECTORY \
-    if common_settings.TEMPORARY_DIRECTORY else tempfile.mkdtemp()
+from common.conf import settings as common_settings
+from common.utils import validate_path
 
 
 def has_usable_password(context):
@@ -17,3 +16,6 @@ current_user_details = {'text': _(u'user details'), 'view': 'current_user_detail
 current_user_edit = {'text': _(u'edit details'), 'view': 'current_user_edit', 'famfam': 'vcard_edit'}
 
 register_links(['current_user_details', 'current_user_edit', 'password_change_view'], [current_user_details, current_user_edit, password_change_view], menu_name='secondary_menu')
+
+if (validate_path(common_settings.TEMPORARY_DIRECTORY) == False) or (not common_settings.TEMPORARY_DIRECTORY):
+    setattr(common_settings, 'TEMPORARY_DIRECTORY', tempfile.mkdtemp())
diff --git a/apps/common/utils.py b/apps/common/utils.py
index 5711ae3d4b..eacaba7923 100644
--- a/apps/common/utils.py
+++ b/apps/common/utils.py
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 import os
 import re
 import types
+import tempfile
 
 from django.utils.http import urlquote  as django_urlquote
 from django.utils.http import urlencode as django_urlencode
@@ -374,3 +375,22 @@ def get_mimetype(filepath):
         file_mimetype, file_mime_encoding = mimetypes.guess_type(filename)
         
     return file_mimetype, file_mime_encoding
+
+
+def validate_path(path):
+    if os.path.exists(path) != True:
+        # If doesn't exist try to create it
+        try:
+            os.mkdir(path)
+        except:
+            return False
+    
+    # Check if it is writable
+    try:
+        fd, test_filepath = tempfile.mkstemp(dir=path)
+        os.close(fd)
+        os.unlink(test_filepath)
+    except:
+        return False
+        
+    return True