diff --git a/api/src/app.ts b/api/src/app.ts
index dd23df1..cb0734d 100644
--- a/api/src/app.ts
+++ b/api/src/app.ts
@@ -61,6 +61,6 @@ export default setProcessVariables().then(async () => {
 
   app.use(onError)
 
-  connectDB()
+  await connectDB()
   return app
 })
diff --git a/api/src/utils/connectDB.ts b/api/src/utils/connectDB.ts
index c2c1643..a751b16 100644
--- a/api/src/utils/connectDB.ts
+++ b/api/src/utils/connectDB.ts
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ import mongoose from 'mongoose'
 import { populateClients } from '../routes/api/auth'
 import { seedDB } from './seedDB'
 
-export const connectDB = () => {
+export const connectDB = async () => {
   // NOTE: when exporting app.js as agent for supertest
   // we should exclude connecting to the real database
   if (process.env.NODE_ENV === 'test') {
diff --git a/api/src/utils/setProcessVariables.ts b/api/src/utils/setProcessVariables.ts
index 8cb705f..b44f1bd 100644
--- a/api/src/utils/setProcessVariables.ts
+++ b/api/src/utils/setProcessVariables.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 import path from 'path'
-import { getRealPath } from '@sasjs/utils'
+import { getAbsolutePath, getRealPath } from '@sasjs/utils'
 
 import { configuration } from '../../package.json'
 import { getDesktopFields } from '.'
@@ -12,18 +12,17 @@ export const setProcessVariables = async () => {
 
   const { MODE } = process.env
 
-  if (MODE?.trim() !== 'server') {
+  if (MODE?.trim() === 'server') {
+    const { SAS_PATH, DRIVE_PATH } = process.env
+
+    process.sasLoc = SAS_PATH ?? configuration.sasPath
+    const absPath = getAbsolutePath(DRIVE_PATH ?? 'tmp', process.cwd())
+    process.driveLoc = getRealPath(absPath)
+  } else {
     const { sasLoc, driveLoc } = await getDesktopFields()
 
     process.sasLoc = sasLoc
     process.driveLoc = driveLoc
-  } else {
-    const { SAS_PATH, DRIVE_PATH } = process.env
-
-    process.sasLoc = SAS_PATH ?? configuration.sasPath
-    process.driveLoc = getRealPath(
-      path.join(process.cwd(), DRIVE_PATH ?? 'tmp')
-    )
   }
 
   console.log('sasLoc: ', process.sasLoc)