diff --git a/.dockerignore b/.dockerignore
index b981dcf..14aaf28 100644
--- a/.dockerignore
+++ b/.dockerignore
@@ -1,2 +1,3 @@
 data/
 cache/
+emoji/
diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index e797e62..87b0cc9 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 data/
 cache/
+emoji/
 custom.d/
 !custom.d/.gitkeep
 config.exs
diff --git a/docker-compose.yml b/docker-compose.yml
index 3b8348a..6d8ee3f 100644
--- a/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/docker-compose.yml
@@ -46,4 +46,5 @@ services:
       - ./custom.d:/custom.d:ro
       - ./config.exs:/home/pleroma/pleroma/config/prod.secret.exs:ro
       - ./config.exs:/home/pleroma/pleroma/config/dev.secret.exs:ro
+      - ./emoji:/home/pleroma/pleroma/instance/static/emoji
       - $DOCKER_DATADIR/uploads:/uploads
diff --git a/pleroma.sh b/pleroma.sh
index 3c9fad8..c41888f 100755
--- a/pleroma.sh
+++ b/pleroma.sh
@@ -196,6 +196,15 @@ action__restart() {
 }
 
 action__start() {
+    if [[ ! -d ./data/uploads ]] || [[ ! -d ./emoji ]]; then
+        if [[ "$(id -u)" != "$DOCKER_UID" ]]; then
+            echo "Please create the folders ./data/uploads and ./emoji, and chown them to $DOCKER_UID"
+            exit 1
+        fi
+
+        mkdir -p ./data/uploads ./emoji
+    fi
+
     docker_compose up --remove-orphans -d
 }