diff --git a/components/spiffs/host_test/CMakeLists.txt b/components/spiffs/host_test/CMakeLists.txt
index 81a2485a61..521c80b60d 100644
--- a/components/spiffs/host_test/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/components/spiffs/host_test/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -15,12 +15,12 @@ add_custom_target(image.bin)
 add_custom_command(
     TARGET image.bin
     POST_BUILD
-    COMMAND python ../../spiffsgen.py 2097152 ../../spiffs ../image.bin
+    COMMAND python ../../spiffsgen.py 2097152 ../../spiffs ${build_dir}/image.bin
 )
 
 set_property(
     DIRECTORY
-    APPEND PROPERTY ADDITIONAL_CLEAN_FILES "../image.bin")
+    APPEND PROPERTY ADDITIONAL_CLEAN_FILES "${build_dir}/image.bin")
 
 
 add_dependencies(host_test_spiffs.elf image.bin)
diff --git a/components/spiffs/host_test/main/CMakeLists.txt b/components/spiffs/host_test/main/CMakeLists.txt
index 544f56e7fe..9e7cfedc75 100644
--- a/components/spiffs/host_test/main/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/components/spiffs/host_test/main/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
 idf_component_register(SRCS "host_test_spiffs.c"
                        PRIV_INCLUDE_DIRS "../.." "../../spiffs/src"
                        REQUIRES spiffs unity)
+
+# set BUILD_DIR because test uses a file created in the build directory
+target_compile_definitions(${COMPONENT_LIB} PRIVATE "BUILD_DIR=\"${build_dir}\"")
diff --git a/components/spiffs/host_test/main/host_test_spiffs.c b/components/spiffs/host_test/main/host_test_spiffs.c
index 9b0cb018a4..5dbf0ab0d2 100644
--- a/components/spiffs/host_test/main/host_test_spiffs.c
+++ b/components/spiffs/host_test/main/host_test_spiffs.c
@@ -236,9 +236,10 @@ TEST(spiffs, can_read_spiffs_image)
     s32_t spiffs_res;
 
     const esp_partition_t *partition = esp_partition_find_first(ESP_PARTITION_TYPE_DATA, ESP_PARTITION_SUBTYPE_DATA_SPIFFS, "storage");
+    TEST_ASSERT_NOT_NULL(partition);
 
     // Write the contents of the image file to partition
-    FILE *img_file = fopen("image.bin", "r");
+    FILE *img_file = fopen(BUILD_DIR "/image.bin", "r");
     TEST_ASSERT_NOT_NULL(img_file);
 
     fseek(img_file, 0, SEEK_END);
@@ -248,7 +249,7 @@ TEST(spiffs, can_read_spiffs_image)
     char *img = (char *) malloc(img_size);
     TEST_ASSERT(fread(img, 1, img_size, img_file) == img_size);
     fclose(img_file);
-    TEST_ASSERT_TRUE(partition->size == img_size);
+    TEST_ASSERT_EQUAL(partition->size, img_size);
 
     esp_partition_erase_range(partition, 0, partition->size);
     esp_partition_write(partition, 0, img, img_size);
@@ -267,7 +268,7 @@ TEST(spiffs, can_read_spiffs_image)
 
     // The image is created from the spiffs source directory. Compare the files in that
     // directory to the files read from the SPIFFS image.
-    check_spiffs_files(&fs, "../spiffs", path_buf);
+    check_spiffs_files(&fs, BUILD_DIR "/../../spiffs", path_buf);
 
     deinit_spiffs(&fs);
 }