diff --git a/user/local/share/towel/bin/towel-update b/user/local/share/towel/bin/towel-update
index ae5d0ae..7a7bcf4 100755
--- a/user/local/share/towel/bin/towel-update
+++ b/user/local/share/towel/bin/towel-update
@@ -168,7 +168,16 @@ if [ "$assume_yes" != "true" ]; then
 fi
 
 tmpdir="$(/usr/bin/mktemp -d)"
-trap '/usr/bin/rm -rf "$tmpdir"' EXIT
+restore_backup=""
+
+function _towel_update_cleanup() {
+	if [ -n "$restore_backup" ]; then
+		rm -rf "$TOWEL_DATA"
+		mv "$backup_current" "$TOWEL_DATA" 2>/dev/null
+	fi
+	/usr/bin/rm -rf "$tmpdir"
+}
+trap _towel_update_cleanup EXIT
 
 base_url="https://github.com/${TOWEL_GITHUB_REPO}/releases/download/v${latest_version}"
 tarball="towel-${latest_version}.tar.gz"
@@ -214,7 +223,7 @@ source "$src/user/local/share/towel/bin/towel-common"
 
 backup_current="${TOWEL_DATA}.backup.$(date +%s)"
 mv "$TOWEL_DATA" "$backup_current" 2>/dev/null || true
-trap 'rm -rf "$TOWEL_DATA"; mv "$backup_current" "$TOWEL_DATA" 2>/dev/null' EXIT
+restore_backup="1"
 
 towel_install_from_dir "$src" || {
 	echo 1>&2 "towel update --apply failed: installation error"
@@ -222,7 +231,7 @@ towel_install_from_dir "$src" || {
 }
 
 rm -rf "$backup_current"
-trap - EXIT
+restore_backup=""
 echo "towel updated to $latest_version."
 echo "Note: distrobox/containers configs were not refreshed."
 echo "      Re-run ./install from the tarball to update those."