diff --git a/dev-packages/application-manager/src/generator/backend-generator.ts b/dev-packages/application-manager/src/generator/backend-generator.ts
index a5df1bdb80b46..fd47708a0d3af 100644
--- a/dev-packages/application-manager/src/generator/backend-generator.ts
+++ b/dev-packages/application-manager/src/generator/backend-generator.ts
@@ -52,10 +52,12 @@ if (process.env.LC_ALL) {
 }
 process.env.LC_NUMERIC = 'C';
 
+const { resolve } = require('path');
+const theiaAppProjectPath = resolve(__dirname, '..', '..');
+process.env.THEIA_APP_PROJECT_PATH = theiaAppProjectPath;
 const { default: electronMainApplicationModule } = require('@theia/core/lib/electron-main/electron-main-application-module');
 const { ElectronMainApplication, ElectronMainApplicationGlobals } = require('@theia/core/lib/electron-main/electron-main-application');
 const { Container } = require('inversify');
-const { resolve } = require('path');
 const { app } = require('electron');
 
 const config = ${this.prettyStringify(this.pck.props.frontend.config)};
@@ -71,7 +73,7 @@ const isSingleInstance = ${this.pck.props.backend.config.singleInstance === true
     const container = new Container();
     container.load(electronMainApplicationModule);
     container.bind(ElectronMainApplicationGlobals).toConstantValue({
-        THEIA_APP_PROJECT_PATH: resolve(__dirname, '..', '..'),
+        THEIA_APP_PROJECT_PATH: theiaAppProjectPath,
         THEIA_BACKEND_MAIN_PATH: resolve(__dirname, 'main.js'),
         THEIA_FRONTEND_HTML_PATH: resolve(__dirname, '..', '..', 'lib', 'frontend', 'index.html'),
     });
@@ -119,6 +121,7 @@ if ('ELECTRON_RUN_AS_NODE' in process.env) {
 }
 
 const path = require('path');
+process.env.THEIA_APP_PROJECT_PATH = path.resolve(__dirname, '..', '..')
 const express = require('express');
 const { Container } = require('inversify');
 const { BackendApplication, BackendApplicationServer, CliManager } = require('@theia/core/lib/node');
diff --git a/packages/core/src/electron-main/electron-main-application.ts b/packages/core/src/electron-main/electron-main-application.ts
index 2efa9fce419e2..9c0f410fba9ba 100644
--- a/packages/core/src/electron-main/electron-main-application.ts
+++ b/packages/core/src/electron-main/electron-main-application.ts
@@ -548,10 +548,6 @@ export class ElectronMainApplication {
     protected async startBackend(): Promise<number> {
         // Check if we should run everything as one process.
         const noBackendFork = process.argv.indexOf('--no-cluster') !== -1;
-        // We cannot use the `process.cwd()` as the application project path (the location of the `package.json` in other words)
-        // in a bundled electron application because it depends on the way we start it. For instance, on OS X, these are a differences:
-        // https://github.com/eclipse-theia/theia/issues/3297#issuecomment-439172274
-        process.env.THEIA_APP_PROJECT_PATH = this.globals.THEIA_APP_PROJECT_PATH;
         // Set the electron version for both the dev and the production mode. (https://github.com/eclipse-theia/theia/issues/3254)
         // Otherwise, the forked backend processes will not know that they're serving the electron frontend.
         process.env.THEIA_ELECTRON_VERSION = process.versions.electron;
diff --git a/packages/core/src/node/backend-application-module.ts b/packages/core/src/node/backend-application-module.ts
index e3461c473b956..a89a7a8a52ea6 100644
--- a/packages/core/src/node/backend-application-module.ts
+++ b/packages/core/src/node/backend-application-module.ts
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ import {
     bindContributionProvider, MessageService, MessageClient, ConnectionHandler, RpcConnectionHandler,
     CommandService, commandServicePath, messageServicePath, OSBackendProvider, OSBackendProviderPath
 } from '../common';
-import { BackendApplication, BackendApplicationContribution, BackendApplicationCliContribution, BackendApplicationServer } from './backend-application';
+import { BackendApplication, BackendApplicationContribution, BackendApplicationCliContribution, BackendApplicationServer, BackendApplicationPath } from './backend-application';
 import { CliManager, CliContribution } from './cli';
 import { IPCConnectionProvider } from './messaging';
 import { ApplicationServerImpl } from './application-server';
@@ -101,10 +101,7 @@ export const backendApplicationModule = new ContainerModule(bind => {
         })
     ).inSingletonScope();
 
-    bind(ApplicationPackage).toDynamicValue(({ container }) => {
-        const { projectPath } = container.get(BackendApplicationCliContribution);
-        return new ApplicationPackage({ projectPath });
-    }).inSingletonScope();
+    bind(ApplicationPackage).toConstantValue(new ApplicationPackage({ projectPath: BackendApplicationPath }));
 
     bind(WsRequestValidator).toSelf().inSingletonScope();
     bindContributionProvider(bind, WsRequestValidatorContribution);
diff --git a/packages/core/src/node/backend-application.ts b/packages/core/src/node/backend-application.ts
index a93376955750b..31549abbc5f79 100644
--- a/packages/core/src/node/backend-application.ts
+++ b/packages/core/src/node/backend-application.ts
@@ -27,9 +27,14 @@ import { CliContribution } from './cli';
 import { Deferred } from '../common/promise-util';
 import { environment } from '../common/index';
 import { AddressInfo } from 'net';
-import { ApplicationPackage } from '@theia/application-package';
 import { ProcessUtils } from './process-utils';
 
+/**
+ * The path to the application project directory. This is the directory where the application code is located.
+ * Mostly contains the `package.json` file and the `lib` directory.
+ */
+export const BackendApplicationPath = process.env.THEIA_APP_PROJECT_PATH || process.cwd();
+
 export type DnsResultOrder = 'ipv4first' | 'verbatim' | 'nodeDefault';
 
 const APP_PROJECT_PATH = 'app-project-path';
@@ -115,7 +120,8 @@ export class BackendApplicationCliContribution implements CliContribution {
     ssl: boolean | undefined;
     cert: string | undefined;
     certkey: string | undefined;
-    projectPath: string;
+    /** @deprecated Use the `BackendApplicationPath` constant or `process.env.THEIA_APP_PROJECT_PATH` environment variable instead */
+    projectPath = BackendApplicationPath;
 
     configure(conf: yargs.Argv): void {
         conf.option('port', { alias: 'p', description: 'The port the backend server listens on.', type: 'number', default: DEFAULT_PORT });
@@ -123,7 +129,7 @@ export class BackendApplicationCliContribution implements CliContribution {
         conf.option('ssl', { description: 'Use SSL (HTTPS), cert and certkey must also be set', type: 'boolean', default: DEFAULT_SSL });
         conf.option('cert', { description: 'Path to SSL certificate.', type: 'string' });
         conf.option('certkey', { description: 'Path to SSL certificate key.', type: 'string' });
-        conf.option(APP_PROJECT_PATH, { description: 'Sets the application project directory', default: this.appProjectPath() });
+        conf.option(APP_PROJECT_PATH, { description: 'Sets the application project directory', deprecated: true });
         conf.option('dnsDefaultResultOrder', {
             type: 'string',
             description: 'Configure Node\'s DNS resolver default behavior, see https://nodejs.org/docs/latest-v18.x/api/dns.html#dnssetdefaultresultorderorder',
@@ -138,19 +144,8 @@ export class BackendApplicationCliContribution implements CliContribution {
         this.ssl = args.ssl as boolean;
         this.cert = args.cert as string;
         this.certkey = args.certkey as string;
-        this.projectPath = args[APP_PROJECT_PATH] as string;
         this.dnsDefaultResultOrder = args.dnsDefaultResultOrder as DnsResultOrder;
     }
-
-    protected appProjectPath(): string {
-        if (environment.electron.is()) {
-            if (process.env.THEIA_APP_PROJECT_PATH) {
-                return process.env.THEIA_APP_PROJECT_PATH;
-            }
-            throw new Error('The \'THEIA_APP_PROJECT_PATH\' environment variable must be set when running in electron.');
-        }
-        return process.cwd();
-    }
 }
 
 /**
@@ -161,9 +156,6 @@ export class BackendApplication {
 
     protected readonly app: express.Application = express();
 
-    @inject(ApplicationPackage)
-    protected readonly applicationPackage: ApplicationPackage;
-
     @inject(ProcessUtils)
     protected readonly processUtils: ProcessUtils;
 
@@ -352,7 +344,7 @@ export class BackendApplication {
         const acceptedEncodings = req.acceptsEncodings();
 
         const gzUrl = `${req.url}.gz`;
-        const gzPath = path.join(this.applicationPackage.projectPath, 'lib', 'frontend', gzUrl);
+        const gzPath = path.join(BackendApplicationPath, 'lib', 'frontend', gzUrl);
         if (acceptedEncodings.indexOf('gzip') === -1 || !(await fs.pathExists(gzPath))) {
             next();
             return;
diff --git a/packages/core/src/node/env-variables/env-variables-server.ts b/packages/core/src/node/env-variables/env-variables-server.ts
index 7c337992ac90b..57cdf059756fd 100644
--- a/packages/core/src/node/env-variables/env-variables-server.ts
+++ b/packages/core/src/node/env-variables/env-variables-server.ts
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ import { pathExists, mkdir } from 'fs-extra';
 import { EnvVariable, EnvVariablesServer } from '../../common/env-variables';
 import { isWindows } from '../../common/os';
 import { FileUri } from '../../common/file-uri';
+import { BackendApplicationPath } from '../backend-application';
 
 @injectable()
 export class EnvVariablesServerImpl implements EnvVariablesServer {
@@ -45,10 +46,7 @@ export class EnvVariablesServerImpl implements EnvVariablesServer {
     }
 
     protected async createConfigDirUri(): Promise<string> {
-        let dataFolderPath: string = '';
-        if (process.env.THEIA_APP_PROJECT_PATH) {
-            dataFolderPath = join(process.env.THEIA_APP_PROJECT_PATH, 'data');
-        }
+        const dataFolderPath = join(BackendApplicationPath, 'data');
         const userDataPath = join(dataFolderPath, 'user-data');
         const dataFolderExists = this.pathExistenceCache[dataFolderPath] ??= await pathExists(dataFolderPath);
         if (dataFolderExists) {
diff --git a/packages/remote/src/electron-node/setup/remote-copy-contribution.ts b/packages/remote/src/electron-node/setup/remote-copy-contribution.ts
index b6db142310ea8..4aecf9e8f0746 100644
--- a/packages/remote/src/electron-node/setup/remote-copy-contribution.ts
+++ b/packages/remote/src/electron-node/setup/remote-copy-contribution.ts
@@ -61,8 +61,7 @@ export class RemoteCopyRegistry {
         const globResult = await promiseGlob(pattern, {
             cwd: projectPath
         });
-        const relativeFiles = globResult.map(file => path.relative(projectPath, file));
-        for (const file of relativeFiles) {
+        for (const file of globResult) {
             const targetFile = this.withTarget(file, target);
             this.files.push({
                 path: file,