diff --git a/scripts/backup/locations/location_loader.sh b/scripts/backup/locations/location_loader.sh
index 9e04d61..e936199 100644
--- a/scripts/backup/locations/location_loader.sh
+++ b/scripts/backup/locations/location_loader.sh
@@ -11,8 +11,18 @@ sourceBackupLocations()
     dir=$(backupLocationsDir)
     [[ ! -d "$dir" ]] && return 0
 
+    # configs/backup/locations/ lives in the manager-owned configs tree (not
+    # the dockerinstall-owned containers tree), so a plain find works fine.
+    # runFileOp was adding ~50 ms of sudo-shell overhead per invocation for
+    # no benefit. Fall back to runFileOp only if the directory isn't readable
+    # for some reason (relocated tree, custom permissions, …).
+    local find_cmd=(find)
+    if [[ ! -r "$dir" || ! -x "$dir" ]] && declare -f runFileOp >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+        find_cmd=(runFileOp find)
+    fi
+
     local cfg
     while IFS= read -r -d '' cfg; do
         [[ -f "$cfg" ]] && source "$cfg"
-    done < <(runFileOp find "$dir" -mindepth 2 -maxdepth 2 -name location.config -type f -print0 2>/dev/null)
+    done < <("${find_cmd[@]}" "$dir" -mindepth 2 -maxdepth 2 -name location.config -type f -print0 2>/dev/null)
 }