diff --git a/DOCS/man/mpv.rst b/DOCS/man/mpv.rst
index a005b92349..5078aac61a 100644
--- a/DOCS/man/mpv.rst
+++ b/DOCS/man/mpv.rst
@@ -356,7 +356,7 @@ You can also write file-specific configuration files. If you wish to have a
 configuration file for a file called 'video.avi', create a file named
 'video.avi.conf' with the file-specific options in it and put it in
 ``~/.config/mpv/``. You can also put the configuration file in the same directory
-as the file to be played, as long as you give the ``--use-filedir-conf``
+as the file to be played. Both require you to set the ``--use-filedir-conf``
 option (either on the command line or in your global config file). If a
 file-specific configuration file is found in the same directory, no
 file-specific configuration is loaded from ``~/.config/mpv``. In addition, the
diff --git a/player/configfiles.c b/player/configfiles.c
index bbc7ecc12a..75011eb9fa 100644
--- a/player/configfiles.c
+++ b/player/configfiles.c
@@ -111,15 +111,15 @@ static void mp_load_per_file_config(struct MPContext *mpctx)
     char cfg[512];
     const char *file = mpctx->filename;
 
-    if (snprintf(cfg, sizeof(cfg), "%s.conf", file) >= sizeof(cfg)) {
-        MP_VERBOSE(mpctx, "Filename is too long, "
-                   "can not load file or directory specific config files\n");
-        return;
-    }
-
-    char *name = mp_basename(cfg);
-
     if (opts->use_filedir_conf) {
+        if (snprintf(cfg, sizeof(cfg), "%s.conf", file) >= sizeof(cfg)) {
+            MP_VERBOSE(mpctx, "Filename is too long, can not load file or "
+                              "directory specific config files\n");
+            return;
+        }
+
+        char *name = mp_basename(cfg);
+
         bstr dir = mp_dirname(cfg);
         char *dircfg = mp_path_join(NULL, dir, bstr0("mpv.conf"));
         try_load_config(mpctx, dircfg, FILE_LOCAL_FLAGS);
@@ -127,12 +127,12 @@ static void mp_load_per_file_config(struct MPContext *mpctx)
 
         if (try_load_config(mpctx, cfg, FILE_LOCAL_FLAGS))
             return;
-    }
 
-    if ((confpath = mp_find_config_file(NULL, mpctx->global, name))) {
-        try_load_config(mpctx, confpath, FILE_LOCAL_FLAGS);
+        if ((confpath = mp_find_config_file(NULL, mpctx->global, name))) {
+            try_load_config(mpctx, confpath, FILE_LOCAL_FLAGS);
 
-        talloc_free(confpath);
+            talloc_free(confpath);
+        }
     }
 }