diff --git a/lisp/ob-core.el b/lisp/ob-core.el
index 18722d141..3baa6347c 100644
--- a/lisp/ob-core.el
+++ b/lisp/ob-core.el
@@ -3273,6 +3273,15 @@ Emacs shutdown.")
 	   ,scalar-form
 	 ,@table-forms))))
 
+(defmacro org-babel-temp-directory ()
+  "Return temporary directory suitable for `default-directory'."
+  `(if (file-remote-p default-directory)
+       org-babel-remote-temporary-directory
+     (or (and org-babel-temporary-directory
+	      (file-exists-p org-babel-temporary-directory)
+	      org-babel-temporary-directory)
+	 temporary-file-directory)))
+
 (defun org-babel-temp-file (prefix &optional suffix)
   "Create a temporary file in the `org-babel-temporary-directory'.
 Passes PREFIX and SUFFIX directly to `make-temp-file' with the
diff --git a/lisp/ob-gnuplot.el b/lisp/ob-gnuplot.el
index b0567646d..59913e70f 100644
--- a/lisp/ob-gnuplot.el
+++ b/lisp/ob-gnuplot.el
@@ -106,7 +106,7 @@ code."
 		     (file-remote-p val)  ;; check if val is a remote file
 		     (file-exists-p val)) ;; call to file-exists-p is slow, maybe remove it
 		(let* ((local-name (concat ;; create a unique filename to avoid multiple downloads
-				    org-babel-temporary-directory
+				    (org-babel-temp-directory)
 				    "/gnuplot/"
 				    (file-remote-p val 'host)
 				    (org-babel-local-file-name val))))
diff --git a/lisp/ob-java.el b/lisp/ob-java.el
index 5dbf2f856..832214f5c 100644
--- a/lisp/ob-java.el
+++ b/lisp/ob-java.el
@@ -193,7 +193,7 @@ replaced in this string.")
                                                   (concat
                                                    (file-remote-p default-directory)
                                                    org-babel-remote-temporary-directory)
-                                                org-babel-temporary-directory)
+                                                (org-babel-temp-directory))
                                             default-directory)))
          ;; the dir to write the source file
          (packagedir (if (and (not run-from-temp) packagename)
diff --git a/lisp/ob-processing.el b/lisp/ob-processing.el
index fe1ef6aca..644006b9c 100644
--- a/lisp/ob-processing.el
+++ b/lisp/ob-processing.el
@@ -93,7 +93,7 @@
 	  ;; make-temp-file is repeated until no hyphen is in the
 	  ;; name; also sketch dir name must be the same as the
 	  ;; basename of the sketch file.
-	  (let* ((temporary-file-directory org-babel-temporary-directory)
+	  (let* ((temporary-file-directory (org-babel-temp-directory))
 		 (sketch-dir
 		  (let (sketch-dir-candidate)
 		    (while