diff --git a/crates/plugins/plugin-apps/Cargo.toml b/crates/plugins/plugin-apps/Cargo.toml
index 1631674..0c7511e 100644
--- a/crates/plugins/plugin-apps/Cargo.toml
+++ b/crates/plugins/plugin-apps/Cargo.toml
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ k-launcher-kernel = { path = "../../k-launcher-kernel" }
 serde = { workspace = true }
 serde_json = "1.0"
 tokio = { workspace = true }
+tracing = { workspace = true }
 
 [target.'cfg(target_os = "linux")'.dependencies]
 xdg = "3"
diff --git a/crates/plugins/plugin-apps/src/frecency.rs b/crates/plugins/plugin-apps/src/frecency.rs
index 6f57e9a..c7e2160 100644
--- a/crates/plugins/plugin-apps/src/frecency.rs
+++ b/crates/plugins/plugin-apps/src/frecency.rs
@@ -36,11 +36,14 @@ impl FrecencyStore {
     }
 
     pub fn load() -> Arc<Self> {
-        let path = xdg::BaseDirectories::new()
-            .get_data_home()
-            .unwrap_or_else(|| PathBuf::from("."))
-            .join("k-launcher")
-            .join("frecency.json");
+        let Some(data_home) = xdg::BaseDirectories::new().get_data_home() else {
+            tracing::warn!("XDG_DATA_HOME unavailable; frecency disabled (in-memory only)");
+            return Arc::new(Self {
+                path: PathBuf::from("/dev/null"),
+                data: Mutex::new(HashMap::new()),
+            });
+        };
+        let path = data_home.join("k-launcher").join("frecency.json");
         Self::new(path)
     }