diff --git a/vall_e/models/__init__.py b/vall_e/models/__init__.py
index 2ff6c53..6c5c63d 100755
--- a/vall_e/models/__init__.py
+++ b/vall_e/models/__init__.py
@@ -15,6 +15,10 @@ DEFAULT_MODEL_URLS = {
 	'ar+nar-llama-8.sft': 'https://huggingface.co/ecker/vall-e/resolve/main/models/ckpt/ar%2Bnar-llama-8/fp32.sft',
 }
 
+if not DEFAULT_MODEL_PATH.exists() and Path("./data/models/ar+nar-llama-8.sft").exists():
+	DEFAULT_MODEL_DIR = Path('./data/models')
+	DEFAULT_MODEL_PATH = DEFAULT_MODEL_DIR / "ar+nar-llama-8.sft"
+
 # kludge, probably better to use HF's model downloader function
 # to-do: write to a temp file then copy so downloads can be interrupted
 def download_model( save_path=DEFAULT_MODEL_PATH, chunkSize = 1024 ):