diff --git a/solr/CHANGES.txt b/solr/CHANGES.txt
index c460314787e..073c1726bf2 100644
--- a/solr/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/solr/CHANGES.txt
@@ -531,6 +531,8 @@ Bug Fixes
 * SOLR-2173: Suggester should always rebuild Lookup data if Lookup.load fails. (ab)
 
 * SOLR-2190: change xpath from RSS 0.9 to 1.0 in slashdot sample. (koji)
+
+* SOLR-1962: SolrCore#initIndex should not use a mix of indexPath and newIndexPath (Mark Miller)
   
 Other Changes
 ----------------------
diff --git a/solr/src/java/org/apache/solr/core/SolrCore.java b/solr/src/java/org/apache/solr/core/SolrCore.java
index 7e9c65c5dc3..a8f6c9684f1 100644
--- a/solr/src/java/org/apache/solr/core/SolrCore.java
+++ b/solr/src/java/org/apache/solr/core/SolrCore.java
@@ -367,12 +367,12 @@ public final class SolrCore implements SolrInfoMBean {
 
   void initIndex() {
     try {
-
       initDirectoryFactory();
-      boolean indexExists = getDirectoryFactory().exists(getNewIndexDir());
+      String indexDir = getNewIndexDir();
+      boolean indexExists = getDirectoryFactory().exists(indexDir);
       boolean firstTime;
       synchronized (SolrCore.class) {
-        firstTime = dirs.add(new File(getNewIndexDir()).getCanonicalPath());
+        firstTime = dirs.add(new File(indexDir).getCanonicalPath());
       }
       boolean removeLocks = solrConfig.unlockOnStartup;
 
@@ -381,10 +381,10 @@ public final class SolrCore implements SolrInfoMBean {
       if (indexExists && firstTime && removeLocks) {
         // to remove locks, the directory must already exist... so we create it
         // if it didn't exist already...
-        Directory dir = SolrIndexWriter.getDirectory(getIndexDir(), getDirectoryFactory(), solrConfig.mainIndexConfig);
+        Directory dir = SolrIndexWriter.getDirectory(indexDir, getDirectoryFactory(), solrConfig.mainIndexConfig);
         if (dir != null)  {
           if (IndexWriter.isLocked(dir)) {
-            log.warn(logid+"WARNING: Solr index directory '" + getIndexDir() + "' is locked.  Unlocking...");
+            log.warn(logid+"WARNING: Solr index directory '" + indexDir+ "' is locked.  Unlocking...");
             IndexWriter.unlock(dir);
           }
           dir.close();
@@ -393,10 +393,10 @@ public final class SolrCore implements SolrInfoMBean {
 
       // Create the index if it doesn't exist.
       if(!indexExists) {
-        log.warn(logid+"Solr index directory '" + new File(getNewIndexDir()) + "' doesn't exist."
+        log.warn(logid+"Solr index directory '" + new File(indexDir) + "' doesn't exist."
                 + " Creating new index...");
 
-        SolrIndexWriter writer = new SolrIndexWriter("SolrCore.initIndex", getIndexDir(), getDirectoryFactory(), true, schema, solrConfig.mainIndexConfig, solrDelPolicy);
+        SolrIndexWriter writer = new SolrIndexWriter("SolrCore.initIndex", indexDir, getDirectoryFactory(), true, schema, solrConfig.mainIndexConfig, solrDelPolicy);
         writer.close();
       }