diff --git a/automated install/basic-install.sh b/automated install/basic-install.sh
index 2f1248e9..391ba651 100755
--- a/automated install/basic-install.sh	
+++ b/automated install/basic-install.sh	
@@ -50,6 +50,7 @@ PI_HOLE_INSTALL_DIR="/opt/pihole"
 useUpdateVars=false
 
 adlistFile="/etc/pihole/adlists.list"
+regexFile="/etc/pihole/regex.list"
 # Pi-hole needs an IP address; to begin, these variables are empty since we don't know what the IP is until
 # this script can run
 IPV4_ADDRESS=""
@@ -1235,6 +1236,12 @@ installConfigs() {
     # Make sure Pi-hole's config files are in place
     version_check_dnsmasq
 
+    # Install an empty regex file
+    if [[ ! -f "${regexFile}" ]]; then
+        # Let PHP edit the regex file, if installed
+        install -o pihole -g "${LIGHTTPD_GROUP:-pihole}" -m 664 /dev/null "${regexFile}"
+    fi
+
     # If the user chose to install the dashboard,
     if [[ "${INSTALL_WEB_SERVER}" == true ]]; then
         # and if the Web server conf directory does not exist,
diff --git a/gravity.sh b/gravity.sh
index b018e2ea..50c37784 100755
--- a/gravity.sh
+++ b/gravity.sh
@@ -643,11 +643,6 @@ if [[ "${skipDownload}" == false ]] || [[ "${listType}" == "whitelist" ]]; then
   gravity_Whitelist
 fi
 
-# Set proper permissions on the regex file
-touch "${regexFile}"
-chown pihole:www-data "${regexFile}"
-chmod 664 "${regexFile}"
-
 convert_wildcard_to_regex
 gravity_ShowBlockCount