diff --git a/pkgs/applications/search/recoll/default.nix b/pkgs/applications/search/recoll/default.nix
index 8d33a910546c..4117c8ac78a9 100644
--- a/pkgs/applications/search/recoll/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/applications/search/recoll/default.nix
@@ -46,6 +46,13 @@ mkDerivation rec {
     ++ lib.optionals (!withGui) [ "--disable-qtgui" "--disable-x11mon" ]
     ++ (if stdenv.isLinux then [ "--with-inotify" ] else [ "--without-inotify" ]);
 
+  NIX_CFLAGS_COMPILE = [ "-DNIXPKGS" ];
+
+  patches = [
+    # fix "No/bad main configuration file" error
+    ./fix-datadir.patch
+  ];
+
   nativeBuildInputs = [
     file pkg-config python3Packages.setuptools which
   ];
diff --git a/pkgs/applications/search/recoll/fix-datadir.patch b/pkgs/applications/search/recoll/fix-datadir.patch
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..3b316f4d90c6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/applications/search/recoll/fix-datadir.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+diff --git a/utils/rclutil.cpp b/utils/rclutil.cpp
+index 60ff5fb..4a59ccc 100644
+--- a/utils/rclutil.cpp
++++ b/utils/rclutil.cpp
+@@ -279,7 +279,7 @@ const string& path_pkgdatadir()
+         "a subfolder of the installation directory. \n"
+         "Please set the RECOLL_DATADIR environment variable to point to it\n"
+         "(e.g. setx RECOLL_DATADIR \"C:/Program Files (X86)/Recoll/Share)\"\n";
+-#elif defined(__APPLE__) && !defined(MACPORTS) && !defined(HOMEBREW)
++#elif defined(__APPLE__) && !defined(MACPORTS) && !defined(HOMEBREW) && !defined(NIXPKGS)
+     uint32_t size = 0;
+     _NSGetExecutablePath(nullptr, &size);
+     char *path= (char*)malloc(size+1);