diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 9d6eb16..95c1177 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -5,4 +5,5 @@ data-sub/
 build/
 dist/
 podaac_data_subscriber.egg-info/
-.idea/
\ No newline at end of file
+.idea/
+venv
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index deb60fb..be85a66 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ The format is based on [Keep a Changelog](https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.0.0/)
 ### Changed
 - created library of common access mechanisms to split between subscriber and downloader capabilities
 - added .tar.gz to list of default extensions. [40](https://github.com/podaac/data-subscriber/issues/40)
+- Ignore error if destination directory already exists. [46](https://github.com/podaac/data-subscriber/issues/46)
 ### Deprecated
 ### Removed
 ### Fixed
diff --git a/subscriber/podaac_access.py b/subscriber/podaac_access.py
index 039905d..0bdf10b 100644
--- a/subscriber/podaac_access.py
+++ b/subscriber/podaac_access.py
@@ -149,7 +149,7 @@ def validate(args):
 
 def check_dir(path):
     if not isdir(path):
-        makedirs(path)
+        makedirs(path, exist_ok=True)
 
 
 def prepare_time_output(times, prefix, file, args, ts_shift):
diff --git a/subscriber/podaac_data_downloader.py b/subscriber/podaac_data_downloader.py
index 731f1fc..e058bcf 100644
--- a/subscriber/podaac_data_downloader.py
+++ b/subscriber/podaac_data_downloader.py
@@ -94,7 +94,7 @@ def run():
 
     if not isdir(data_path):
         print("NOTE: Making new data directory at " + data_path + "(This is the first run.)")
-        makedirs(data_path)
+        makedirs(data_path, exist_ok=True)
 
     # Change this to whatever extent you need. Format is W Longitude,S Latitude,E Longitude,N Latitude
     bounding_extent = args.bbox
diff --git a/subscriber/podaac_data_subscriber.py b/subscriber/podaac_data_subscriber.py
index 72f09de..5ecab59 100755
--- a/subscriber/podaac_data_subscriber.py
+++ b/subscriber/podaac_data_subscriber.py
@@ -123,7 +123,7 @@ def run():
 
     if not isdir(data_path):
         print("NOTE: Making new data directory at " + data_path + "(This is the first run.)")
-        makedirs(data_path)
+        makedirs(data_path, exist_ok=True)
     else:
         try:
             with open(data_path + "/.update", "r") as f: