diff --git a/roles/mediawiki/tasks/main.yml b/roles/mediawiki/tasks/main.yml
index 94294f8499..3c37dc1567 100644
--- a/roles/mediawiki/tasks/main.yml
+++ b/roles/mediawiki/tasks/main.yml
@@ -89,6 +89,7 @@
     owner: apache
     group: apache
     mode: 0755
+    state: directory
 
 - name: install the php dependencies
   become: yes