diff --git a/src/bitmessageqt/__init__.py b/src/bitmessageqt/__init__.py
index 95eb7d12..d3bf8dae 100644
--- a/src/bitmessageqt/__init__.py
+++ b/src/bitmessageqt/__init__.py
@@ -2426,7 +2426,8 @@ class MyForm(QtGui.QMainWindow):
             if shared.appdata != '' and self.settingsDialogInstance.ui.checkBoxPortableMode.isChecked():  # If we are NOT using portable mode now but the user selected that we should...
                 # Write the keys.dat file to disk in the new location
                 sqlStoredProcedure('movemessagstoprog')
-                shared.writeKeysFile()
+                with open('keys.dat', 'wb') as configfile:
+                    shared.config.write(configfile)
                 # Write the knownnodes.dat file to disk in the new location
                 shared.knownNodesLock.acquire()
                 output = open('knownnodes.dat', 'wb')
diff --git a/src/shared.py b/src/shared.py
index df37c1b4..8f4be2ff 100644
--- a/src/shared.py
+++ b/src/shared.py
@@ -850,12 +850,17 @@ def writeKeysFile():
     fileName = shared.appdata + 'keys.dat'
     fileNameBak = fileName + "." + datetime.datetime.now().strftime("%Y%j%H%M%S%f") + '.bak'
     # create a backup copy to prevent the accidental loss due to the disk write failure
-    shutil.copyfile(fileName, fileNameBak)
+    try:
+        shutil.copyfile(fileName, fileNameBak)
+        # The backup succeeded. This can fail if the file didn't exist before. 
+        existingFileNameExisted = True
+    except:
+        existingFileNameExisted = False
     # write the file
     with open(fileName, 'wb') as configfile:
         shared.config.write(configfile)
     # delete a backup
-    os.remove(fileNameBak)
+    if existingFileNameExisted:
+        os.remove(fileNameBak)
 
-helper_startup.loadConfig()
 from debug import logger