diff --git a/advanced/Templates/pihole-FTL-prestart.sh b/advanced/Templates/pihole-FTL-prestart.sh
index ff4abf3a..17900f0b 100755
--- a/advanced/Templates/pihole-FTL-prestart.sh
+++ b/advanced/Templates/pihole-FTL-prestart.sh
@@ -11,20 +11,17 @@ FTL_PID_FILE="$(getFTLPIDFile)"
 
 # Touch files to ensure they exist (create if non-existing, preserve if existing)
 # shellcheck disable=SC2174
-mkdir -pm 0755 /run/pihole /var/log/pihole
+mkdir -pm 0755 /var/log/pihole
 [ -f "${FTL_PID_FILE}" ] || install -D -m 644 -o pihole -g pihole /dev/null "${FTL_PID_FILE}"
 [ -f /var/log/pihole/FTL.log ] || install -m 644 -o pihole -g pihole /dev/null /var/log/pihole/FTL.log
 [ -f /var/log/pihole/pihole.log ] || install -m 640 -o pihole -g pihole /dev/null /var/log/pihole/pihole.log
 [ -f /etc/pihole/dhcp.leases ] || install -m 644 -o pihole -g pihole /dev/null /etc/pihole/dhcp.leases
 # Ensure that permissions are set so that pihole-FTL can edit all necessary files
-chown pihole:pihole /run/pihole /etc/pihole /var/log/pihole /var/log/pihole/FTL.log /var/log/pihole/pihole.log /etc/pihole/dhcp.leases
-# Ensure that permissions are set so that pihole-FTL can edit the files. We ignore errors as the file may not (yet) exist
-chmod -f 0644 /etc/pihole/macvendor.db /etc/pihole/dhcp.leases /var/log/pihole/FTL.log
-chmod -f 0640 /var/log/pihole/pihole.log
-# Chown database files to the user FTL runs as. We ignore errors as the files may not (yet) exist
-chown -f pihole:pihole /etc/pihole/pihole-FTL.db /etc/pihole/gravity.db /etc/pihole/macvendor.db
-# Chmod database file permissions so that the pihole group (web interface) can edit the file. We ignore errors as the files may not (yet) exist
-chmod -f 0664 /etc/pihole/pihole-FTL.db
+chown -R pihole:pihole /etc/pihole /var/log/pihole
+chmod -R 0640 /var/log/pihole
+chmod -R 0660 /etc/pihole
+# allow all users to enter the directories
+chmod 0755 /etc/pihole /var/log/pihole
 
 # Backward compatibility for user-scripts that still expect log files in /var/log instead of /var/log/pihole
 # Should be removed with Pi-hole v6.0
diff --git a/automated install/basic-install.sh b/automated install/basic-install.sh
index e3d8ff29..bf26631a 100755
--- a/automated install/basic-install.sh	
+++ b/automated install/basic-install.sh	
@@ -1094,7 +1094,7 @@ installConfigs() {
 
     # Install empty custom.list file if it does not exist
     if [[ ! -r "${PI_HOLE_CONFIG_DIR}/custom.list" ]]; then
-        if ! install -o root -m 644 /dev/null "${PI_HOLE_CONFIG_DIR}/custom.list" &>/dev/null; then
+        if ! install -o pihole -g pihole -m 660 /dev/null "${PI_HOLE_CONFIG_DIR}/custom.list" &>/dev/null; then
             printf "  %b Error: Unable to initialize configuration file %s/custom.list\\n" "${COL_LIGHT_RED}" "${PI_HOLE_CONFIG_DIR}"
             return 1
         fi