diff --git a/advanced/Scripts/utils.sh b/advanced/Scripts/utils.sh
index 1174fa62..37516472 100755
--- a/advanced/Scripts/utils.sh
+++ b/advanced/Scripts/utils.sh
@@ -31,6 +31,9 @@ addOrEditKeyValPair() {
   local key="${2}"
   local value="${3}"
 
+  # touch file to prevent grep error if file does not exist yet
+  touch "${file}"
+
   if grep -q "^${key}=" "${file}"; then
     # Key already exists in file, modify the value
     sed -i "/^${key}=/c\\${key}=${value}" "${file}"
@@ -51,6 +54,9 @@ addKey(){
   local file="${1}"
   local key="${2}"
 
+  # touch file to prevent grep error if file does not exist yet
+  touch "${file}"
+
   if ! grep -q "^${key}" "${file}"; then
     # Key does not exist, add it.
     echo "${key}" >> "${file}"
diff --git a/automated install/basic-install.sh b/automated install/basic-install.sh
index ea7052f3..8edd4936 100755
--- a/automated install/basic-install.sh	
+++ b/automated install/basic-install.sh	
@@ -1785,9 +1785,6 @@ create_pihole_user() {
 finalExports() {
     # set or update the variables in the file
 
-    # create the file if it does not exist
-    touch "${setupVars}"
-
     addOrEditKeyValPair "${setupVars}" "PIHOLE_INTERFACE" "${PIHOLE_INTERFACE}"
     addOrEditKeyValPair "${setupVars}" "PIHOLE_DNS_1" "${PIHOLE_DNS_1}"
     addOrEditKeyValPair "${setupVars}" "PIHOLE_DNS_2" "${PIHOLE_DNS_2}"