diff --git a/Core/src/org/sleuthkit/autopsy/modules/hashdatabase/HashDbCreateDatabaseDialog.java b/Core/src/org/sleuthkit/autopsy/modules/hashdatabase/HashDbCreateDatabaseDialog.java
index 96f0c1b16e..1b60250a6b 100644
--- a/Core/src/org/sleuthkit/autopsy/modules/hashdatabase/HashDbCreateDatabaseDialog.java
+++ b/Core/src/org/sleuthkit/autopsy/modules/hashdatabase/HashDbCreateDatabaseDialog.java
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ import java.awt.Dimension;
 import java.awt.Toolkit;
 import java.io.File;
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.nio.file.Paths;
 import java.util.logging.Level;
 import javax.swing.JFileChooser;
 import javax.swing.JFrame;
@@ -30,6 +31,7 @@ import org.apache.commons.io.FilenameUtils;
 import org.openide.util.NbBundle;
 import org.sleuthkit.autopsy.coreutils.Logger;
 import org.sleuthkit.autopsy.coreutils.ModuleSettings;
+import org.sleuthkit.autopsy.coreutils.PlatformUtil;
 import org.sleuthkit.autopsy.modules.hashdatabase.HashDbManager.HashDb;
 import org.sleuthkit.autopsy.modules.hashdatabase.HashDbManager.HashDb.KnownFilesType;
 import org.sleuthkit.autopsy.modules.hashdatabase.HashDbManager.HashDbManagerException;
@@ -273,12 +275,17 @@ final class HashDbCreateDatabaseDialog extends javax.swing.JDialog {
 
     private void saveAsButtonActionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent evt) {//GEN-FIRST:event_saveAsButtonActionPerformed
         try {
-            String lastBaseDirectory = "";
+            String lastBaseDirectory = Paths.get(PlatformUtil.getUserConfigDirectory(), "HashDatabases").toString();
             if (ModuleSettings.settingExists(ModuleSettings.MAIN_SETTINGS, LAST_FILE_PATH_KEY)) {
                 lastBaseDirectory = ModuleSettings.getConfigSetting(ModuleSettings.MAIN_SETTINGS, LAST_FILE_PATH_KEY);
             }
             StringBuilder path = new StringBuilder();
             path.append(lastBaseDirectory);
+            File hashDbFolder = new File(path.toString());
+            // create the folder if it doesn't exist
+            if (!hashDbFolder.exists()){
+                hashDbFolder.mkdir();
+            }
             if (!hashSetNameTextField.getText().isEmpty()) {
                 path.append(File.separator).append(hashSetNameTextField.getText());
             } else {