diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index 7389dee..19aa30c 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -207,6 +207,7 @@ EXPOSE ${PORT}
 ENV SIGNAL_CLI_CONFIG_DIR=/home/.local/share/signal-cli
 ENV SIGNAL_CLI_UID=1000
 ENV SIGNAL_CLI_GID=1000
+ENV SIGNAL_CLI_CHOWN_ON_STARTUP=true
 
 ENTRYPOINT ["/entrypoint.sh"]
 
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 448e239..a80b698 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -139,6 +139,8 @@ There are a bunch of environmental variables that can be set inside the docker c
 
 * `SIGNAL_CLI_GID`: Specifies the gid of the `signal-api` group inside the docker container. Defaults to `1000`
 
+* `SIGNAL_CLI_CHOWN_ON_STARTUP`: If set to `false` will skip the sometimes time consuming chown on startup. Defaults to `true`
+
 * `SWAGGER_HOST`: The host that's used in the Swagger UI for the interactive examples (and useful when this runs behind a reverse proxy). Defaults to SWAGGER_IP:PORT.
 
 * `SWAGGER_IP`: The IP that's used in the Swagger UI for the interactive examples. Defaults to the container ip.
diff --git a/entrypoint.sh b/entrypoint.sh
index f8a7c42..05363d3 100755
--- a/entrypoint.sh
+++ b/entrypoint.sh
@@ -8,8 +8,13 @@ set -e
 usermod -u ${SIGNAL_CLI_UID} signal-api
 groupmod -o -g ${SIGNAL_CLI_GID} signal-api
 
-# Fix permissions to ensure backward compatibility
-chown ${SIGNAL_CLI_UID}:${SIGNAL_CLI_GID} -R ${SIGNAL_CLI_CONFIG_DIR}
+# Fix permissions to ensure backward compatibility if SIGNAL_CLI_CHOWN_ON_STARTUP is not set to "false"
+if [ "$SIGNAL_CLI_CHOWN_ON_STARTUP" != "false" ]; then
+  echo "Changing ownership of ${SIGNAL_CLI_CONFIG_DIR} to ${SIGNAL_CLI_UID}:${SIGNAL_CLI_GID}"
+  chown ${SIGNAL_CLI_UID}:${SIGNAL_CLI_GID} -R ${SIGNAL_CLI_CONFIG_DIR}
+else
+  echo "Skipping chown on startup since SIGNAL_CLI_CHOWN_ON_STARTUP is set to 'false'"
+fi
 
 # Show warning on docker exec
 cat <<EOF >> /root/.bashrc