diff --git a/Applications/CLI/ogs.cpp b/Applications/CLI/ogs.cpp
index 41727f6ddbace738ba80772db01153ab89bca34f..6a0e81c80a7597d93c643e6eb0c93afa22d707f8 100644
--- a/Applications/CLI/ogs.cpp
+++ b/Applications/CLI/ogs.cpp
@@ -65,6 +65,7 @@ int main(int argc, char* argv[])
     INFO("This is OpenGeoSys-6 version {:s}.",
          GitInfoLib::GitInfo::ogs_version);
 
+    if (cli_arg.outdir.length() > 0)
     {
         std::error_code mkdir_err;
         if (std::filesystem::create_directories(cli_arg.outdir, mkdir_err))
diff --git a/Applications/Utils/ModelPreparation/PartitionMesh/PartitionMesh.cpp b/Applications/Utils/ModelPreparation/PartitionMesh/PartitionMesh.cpp
index 95707a7ca0933a2d789c506c6b1479f28969bb4c..bf4017eaa786fd9960e4d2d6242dd98a1d500608 100644
--- a/Applications/Utils/ModelPreparation/PartitionMesh/PartitionMesh.cpp
+++ b/Applications/Utils/ModelPreparation/PartitionMesh/PartitionMesh.cpp
@@ -118,6 +118,7 @@ int main(int argc, char* argv[])
         });
 
     const auto output_directory = output_directory_arg.getValue();
+    if (output_directory.length() > 0)
     {
         std::error_code mkdir_err;
         if (std::filesystem::create_directories(output_directory, mkdir_err))