diff --git a/setup/start.sh b/setup/start.sh
index 4677c074f..456dd8500 100755
--- a/setup/start.sh
+++ b/setup/start.sh
@@ -122,6 +122,7 @@ set_progress "65" "Creating cloudron.conf"
 sudo -u yellowtent -H bash <<EOF
 set -eu
 echo "Creating cloudron.conf"
+# note that arg_aws is a javascript object and intentionally unquoted below
 cat > "${CONFIG_DIR}/cloudron.conf" <<CONF_END
 {
     "version": "${arg_version}",
@@ -140,7 +141,7 @@ cat > "${CONFIG_DIR}/cloudron.conf" <<CONF_END
         "name": "box"
     },
     "backupKey": "${arg_backup_key}",
-    "aws": "${arg_aws}"
+    "aws": ${arg_aws}
 }
 CONF_END
 
diff --git a/src/cloudron.js b/src/cloudron.js
index 9d26401f2..a6aa96cb2 100644
--- a/src/cloudron.js
+++ b/src/cloudron.js
@@ -505,7 +505,8 @@ function doUpdate(boxUpdateInfo, callback) {
                     tlsKey: fs.readFileSync(path.join(paths.NGINX_CERT_DIR, 'host.key'), 'utf8'),
                     isCustomDomain: config.isCustomDomain(),
                     restoreUrl: null,
-                    restoreKey: null
+                    restoreKey: null,
+                    aws: config.aws()
                 }
             };