diff --git a/lib/libalpm/util.c b/lib/libalpm/util.c
index d33eef2a..d4375593 100644
--- a/lib/libalpm/util.c
+++ b/lib/libalpm/util.c
@@ -849,12 +849,16 @@ const char *_alpm_filecache_setup(alpm_handle_t *handle)
 	for(i = handle->cachedirs; i; i = i->next) {
 		cachedir = i->data;
 		if(stat(cachedir, &buf) != 0) {
-			/* cache directory does not exist.... try creating it */
-			_alpm_log(handle, ALPM_LOG_WARNING, _("no %s cache exists, creating...\n"),
-					cachedir);
-			if(_alpm_makepath(cachedir) == 0) {
-				_alpm_log(handle, ALPM_LOG_DEBUG, "using cachedir: %s\n", cachedir);
-				return cachedir;
+			if (errno == EACCES) {
+				_alpm_log(handle, ALPM_LOG_WARNING, _("failed to stat %s: %s\n"), cachedir, strerror(errno));
+			} else {
+				/* cache directory does not exist.... try creating it */
+				_alpm_log(handle, ALPM_LOG_WARNING, _("no %s cache exists, creating...\n"),
+						cachedir);
+				if(_alpm_makepath(cachedir) == 0) {
+					_alpm_log(handle, ALPM_LOG_DEBUG, "using cachedir: %s\n", cachedir);
+					return cachedir;
+				}
 			}
 		} else if(!S_ISDIR(buf.st_mode)) {
 			_alpm_log(handle, ALPM_LOG_DEBUG,