diff --git a/pkg/ddevapp/drupal.go b/pkg/ddevapp/drupal.go
index 849859db4ba..5b9d6ae38ce 100755
--- a/pkg/ddevapp/drupal.go
+++ b/pkg/ddevapp/drupal.go
@@ -69,7 +69,7 @@ func NewDrupalSettings(app *DdevApp) *DrupalSettings {
 const settingsIncludeStanza = `
 // Automatically generated include for settings managed by ddev.
 $ddev_settings = dirname(__FILE__) . '/settings.ddev.php';
-if (is_readable($ddev_settings) && getenv('IS_DDEV_PROJECT') == 'true') {
+if (getenv('IS_DDEV_PROJECT') == 'true' && is_readable($ddev_settings)) {
   require $ddev_settings;
 }
 `