diff --git a/tools/lammps-gui/CMakeLists.txt b/tools/lammps-gui/CMakeLists.txt
index 37fe455d39..656a9b02f2 100644
--- a/tools/lammps-gui/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/tools/lammps-gui/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.16)
 
-project(lammps-gui VERSION 1.5.0 LANGUAGES CXX)
+project(lammps-gui VERSION 1.5.1 LANGUAGES CXX)
 
 set(CMAKE_AUTOUIC ON)
 set(CMAKE_AUTOMOC ON)
diff --git a/tools/lammps-gui/lammpsgui.cpp b/tools/lammps-gui/lammpsgui.cpp
index 98fe81a048..45ddc5071a 100644
--- a/tools/lammps-gui/lammpsgui.cpp
+++ b/tools/lammps-gui/lammpsgui.cpp
@@ -113,6 +113,8 @@ LammpsGui::LammpsGui(QWidget *parent, const char *filename) :
     capturer    = new StdCapture;
     current_file.clear();
     current_dir = QDir(".").absolutePath();
+    // use $HOME if we get dropped to "/" like on macOS
+    if (current_dir == "/") current_dir = QDir::homePath();
 
     QCoreApplication::setOrganizationName("The LAMMPS Developers");
     QCoreApplication::setOrganizationDomain("lammps.org");