diff --git a/src/common/filename.cpp b/src/common/filename.cpp
index 13629a51af..b664a5ef5a 100644
--- a/src/common/filename.cpp
+++ b/src/common/filename.cpp
@@ -1608,6 +1608,11 @@ bool wxFileName::ReplaceHomeDir(wxPathFormat format)
     if (homedir.empty())
         return false;
 
+    // Avoid replacing the leading "/" with "~", this would result in an
+    // invalid path, if nothing else
+    if (homedir == '/')
+        return true; // but it is not an error, so don't return false
+
     wxString stringForm = GetPath(wxPATH_GET_VOLUME, format);
         // do not touch the file name and the extension
 
diff --git a/tests/filename/filenametest.cpp b/tests/filename/filenametest.cpp
index 4bc97850b5..4327cf2307 100644
--- a/tests/filename/filenametest.cpp
+++ b/tests/filename/filenametest.cpp
@@ -466,7 +466,16 @@ TEST_CASE("wxFileName::Replace", "[filename]")
 
     // now test ReplaceHomeDir
 
-    wxFileName fn = wxFileName::DirName(wxGetHomeDir());
+    const wxString& homedir = wxGetHomeDir();
+    if ( homedir == "/" )
+    {
+        // These tests assume that HOME is a non-root directory, but this may
+        // not be the case.
+        WARN("Skipping wxFileName::ReplaceHomeDir() tests because HOME=/");
+        return;
+    }
+
+    wxFileName fn = wxFileName::DirName(homedir);
     fn.AppendDir("test1");
     fn.AppendDir("test2");
     fn.AppendDir("test3");