diff --git a/nixos/modules/services/x11/desktop-managers/gnome3.nix b/nixos/modules/services/x11/desktop-managers/gnome3.nix
index e5a79496c7a5..f833115b857f 100644
--- a/nixos/modules/services/x11/desktop-managers/gnome3.nix
+++ b/nixos/modules/services/x11/desktop-managers/gnome3.nix
@@ -152,7 +152,7 @@ in {
           export XDG_DATA_DIRS=$XDG_DATA_DIRS''${XDG_DATA_DIRS:+:}${mimeAppsList}/share
 
           # Override gsettings-desktop-schema
-          export XDG_DATA_DIRS=${nixos-gsettings-desktop-schemas}/share/gsettings-schemas/nixos-gsettings-overrides''${XDG_DATA_DIRS:+:}$XDG_DATA_DIRS
+          export NIX_GSETTINGS_OVERRIDES_DIR=${nixos-gsettings-desktop-schemas}/share/gsettings-schemas/nixos-gsettings-overrides/glib-2.0/schemas
 
           # Let nautilus find extensions
           export NAUTILUS_EXTENSION_DIR=${config.system.path}/lib/nautilus/extensions-3.0/
diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/glib/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/glib/default.nix
index b82fd5f1e299..e270cd5ea7ba 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/glib/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/glib/default.nix
@@ -55,7 +55,8 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   };
 
   patches = optional stdenv.isDarwin ./darwin-compilation.patch
-    ++ optional doCheck ./skip-timer-test.patch;
+    ++ optional doCheck ./skip-timer-test.patch
+    ++ [ ./schema-override-variable.patch ];
 
   outputs = [ "out" "dev" "devdoc" ];
   outputBin = "dev";
diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/glib/schema-override-variable.patch b/pkgs/development/libraries/glib/schema-override-variable.patch
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..1cb5a730351b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/glib/schema-override-variable.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+--- a/gio/gsettingsschema.c
++++ b/gio/gsettingsschema.c
+@@ -352,6 +352,9 @@
+ 
+       try_prepend_data_dir (g_get_user_data_dir ());
+ 
++      if ((path = g_getenv ("NIX_GSETTINGS_OVERRIDES_DIR")) != NULL)
++        try_prepend_dir (path);
++
+       if ((path = g_getenv ("GSETTINGS_SCHEMA_DIR")) != NULL)
+         try_prepend_dir (path);
+