diff --git a/src-tauri/src/main.rs b/src-tauri/src/main.rs
index 3823064..9a32958 100644
--- a/src-tauri/src/main.rs
+++ b/src-tauri/src/main.rs
@@ -46,7 +46,25 @@ struct DataDirGate {
 }
 
 fn canon_or_raw(p: &Path) -> PathBuf {
-    fs::canonicalize(p).unwrap_or_else(|_| p.to_path_buf())
+    let mut normalized = PathBuf::new();
+    for component in p.components() {
+        match component {
+            std::path::Component::ParentDir => {
+                let can_pop = matches!(
+                    normalized.components().next_back(),
+                    Some(std::path::Component::Normal(_))
+                );
+                if can_pop {
+                    normalized.pop();
+                } else if !normalized.has_root() {
+                    normalized.push(component);
+                }
+            }
+            std::path::Component::CurDir => {}
+            _ => normalized.push(component),
+        }
+    }
+    normalized
 }
 
 /// Exact match against an authorized folder, compared canonicalized so a