diff --git a/utils/general.py b/utils/general.py
index e2faca9dbf2a..d9d54d9e4f71 100644
--- a/utils/general.py
+++ b/utils/general.py
@@ -477,6 +477,7 @@ def check_dataset(data, autodownload=True):
     path = Path(extract_dir or data.get('path') or '')  # optional 'path' default to '.'
     if not path.is_absolute():
         path = (ROOT / path).resolve()
+        data['path'] = path  # download scripts
     for k in 'train', 'val', 'test':
         if data.get(k):  # prepend path
             if isinstance(data[k], str):