diff --git a/cros_workon b/cros_workon
index 74285cd259..d48038ee14 100755
--- a/cros_workon
+++ b/cros_workon
@@ -76,9 +76,15 @@ WORKON_FILE=${WORKON_DIR}/${FLAGS_board:-host}
 KEYWORDS_FILE=${KEYWORDS_DIR}/cros-workon
 UNMASK_FILE=${UNMASK_DIR}/cros-workon
 
-# TODO(msb): remove the backward compatibility after 09/01/2010
-sudo mkdir -p "${WORKON_DIR}" "${KEYWORDS_DIR}" "${UNMASK_DIR}" || \
-  die "mkdir -p ${WORKON_DIR} ${KEYWORDS_DIR} ${UNMASK_DIR}"
+# TODO(msb): remove the backward compatibility after 10/01/2010
+if [ -d "${WORKON_DIR}" ]; then
+  sudo chown -R "${USER}" "${WORKON_DIR}"
+fi
+
+mkdir -p "${WORKON_DIR}" || die "mkdir -p ${WORKON_DIR}"
+touch "${WORKON_FILE}" || die "touch ${WORKON_FILE}"
+sudo mkdir -p "${KEYWORDS_DIR}" "${UNMASK_DIR}" || \
+  die "mkdir -p ${KEYWORDS_DIR} ${UNMASK_DIR}"
 if [ ! -L "${KEYWORDS_FILE}" ]; then
   sudo rm -f "${KEYWORDS_FILE}"
   sudo ln -s "${WORKON_FILE}" "${KEYWORDS_FILE}" || \
@@ -89,8 +95,6 @@ if [ ! -L "${UNMASK_FILE}" ]; then
   sudo ln -s "${WORKON_FILE}" "${UNMASK_FILE}" || \
     die "ln -s ${WORKON_FILE} ${UNMASK_FILE}"
 fi
-sudo touch "${WORKON_FILE}" || \
-  die "touch ${WORKON_FILE}"
 
 # Canonicalize package name to category/package.
 canonicalize_name () {