diff --git a/app/config.py b/app/config.py
index f00d400..4662c5d 100644
--- a/app/config.py
+++ b/app/config.py
@@ -2,9 +2,20 @@ import os
 from dotenv import load_dotenv
 
 basedir = os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__))
+projectdir = os.path.dirname(basedir)
+
+# Look for .env beside app/ first (project root), then inside app/.
+load_dotenv(os.path.join(projectdir, '.env'))
 load_dotenv(os.path.join(basedir, '.env'))
 
 
+def _resolve_path(value, default):
+    """Absolute value as-is; relative resolved against the project root."""
+    if not value:
+        return default
+    return value if os.path.isabs(value) else os.path.join(projectdir, value)
+
+
 class Config:
     """Base configuration."""
     
@@ -17,8 +28,14 @@ class Config:
     SQLALCHEMY_TRACK_MODIFICATIONS = False
     
     # File Upload
-    # basedir is E:\LIM\app, so we just need 'static/uploads' to get E:\LIM\app\static\uploads
-    UPLOAD_FOLDER = os.path.join(basedir, 'static', 'uploads')
+    # Defaults to <app>/static/uploads (E:\LIM\app\static\uploads on the
+    # Windows install). Set UPLOAD_FOLDER to override — the Docker image
+    # points it at a mounted volume, e.g. /data/uploads.
+    # A relative value is resolved against the project root, NOT the working
+    # directory, so `UPLOAD_FOLDER=app/static/uploads` in .env means the same
+    # thing no matter where you run flask from.
+    UPLOAD_FOLDER = _resolve_path(os.environ.get('UPLOAD_FOLDER'),
+                                  os.path.join(basedir, 'static', 'uploads'))
     MAX_CONTENT_LENGTH = int(os.environ.get('MAX_CONTENT_LENGTH', 52428800))  # 50MB
     ALLOWED_EXTENSIONS = {'pdf', 'png', 'jpg', 'jpeg', 'gif', 'webp'}
     
@@ -31,8 +48,9 @@ class Config:
     # Backups
     # Defaults to <project root>/backups so archives never land inside the
     # uploads tree (which would make each backup include the previous one).
-    BACKUP_FOLDER = os.environ.get('BACKUP_FOLDER') or \
-        os.path.join(os.path.dirname(basedir), 'backups')
+    # Relative values resolve against the project root, as with UPLOAD_FOLDER.
+    BACKUP_FOLDER = _resolve_path(os.environ.get('BACKUP_FOLDER'),
+                                  os.path.join(projectdir, 'backups'))
     # Keep only the newest N archives after a backup made from the web UI.
     # Set to 0 to keep everything.
     BACKUP_KEEP = int(os.environ.get('BACKUP_KEEP', 5))