diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 4d7da8827..bfdb4fc1b 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -6,7 +6,9 @@ ver 0.23.4 (not yet released)
 * output
   - alsa: add option "thesycon_dsd_workaround" to work around device bug
 * fix crash on debug builds if startup fails
-* ignore the "pid_file" setting if started as systemd service
+* systemd
+  - remove "RuntimeDirectory" directive because it caused problems
+  - ignore the "pid_file" setting if started as systemd service
 * Windows
   - enable the "openmpt" decoder plugin
 
diff --git a/systemd/system/mpd.service.in b/systemd/system/mpd.service.in
index e0707507d..87bc88942 100644
--- a/systemd/system/mpd.service.in
+++ b/systemd/system/mpd.service.in
@@ -7,10 +7,6 @@ After=network.target sound.target
 Type=notify
 ExecStart=@prefix@/bin/mpd --systemd
 
-# Create /run/mpd (if MPD is launched without the socket unit and is
-# configured to bind listener sockets there).
-RuntimeDirectory=mpd
-
 # Enable this setting to ask systemd to watch over MPD, see
 # systemd.service(5).  This is disabled by default because it causes
 # periodic wakeups which are unnecessary if MPD is not playing.
diff --git a/systemd/user/mpd.service.in b/systemd/user/mpd.service.in
index 6f8474e02..4ee7015d0 100644
--- a/systemd/user/mpd.service.in
+++ b/systemd/user/mpd.service.in
@@ -7,10 +7,6 @@ After=network.target sound.target
 Type=notify
 ExecStart=@prefix@/bin/mpd --systemd
 
-# Create /run/user/$UID/mpd (if MPD is launched without the socket
-# unit and is configured to bind listener sockets there).
-RuntimeDirectory=mpd
-
 # Enable this setting to ask systemd to watch over MPD, see
 # systemd.service(5).  This is disabled by default because it causes
 # periodic wakeups which are unnecessary if MPD is not playing.