diff --git a/docs/advanced-usage/persistent-storage.md b/docs/advanced-usage/persistent-storage.md
index 70c837123..5eac24fe7 100644
--- a/docs/advanced-usage/persistent-storage.md
+++ b/docs/advanced-usage/persistent-storage.md
@@ -95,6 +95,8 @@ By default, permissions are set for usage with Herokuish buildpacks. These permi
 
 Users deploying via Dockerfile will want to specify `--chown false` and manually `chown` the created directory if the user and/or group id  of the runnning process in the deployed container do not correspond to any of the above options.
 
+The `--chown` flag - whether on `storage:create` or `storage:ensure-directory` - only manages the default `/var/lib/dokku/data/storage/<name>` location. If a custom `<path>` is passed to `storage:create`, the chown call is refused and the operator must chown the path themselves.
+
 > [!WARNING]
 > Failing to set the correct directory ownership may result in issues in persisting files written to the mounted storage directory.
 
diff --git a/plugins/storage/commands_entries.go b/plugins/storage/commands_entries.go
index 80e104468..afbc459b5 100644
--- a/plugins/storage/commands_entries.go
+++ b/plugins/storage/commands_entries.go
@@ -495,6 +495,13 @@ func CommandListEntries(scheduler string, format string) error {
 // docker-local entry if it doesn't already exist. Idempotent: a
 // pre-existing directory is left in place.
 func ensureDockerLocalPath(entry *Entry) error {
+	if entry.Chown != "" && entry.Chown != "false" {
+		defaultHostPath := filepath.Join(GetStorageDirectory(), entry.Name)
+		if entry.HostPath != defaultHostPath {
+			return fmt.Errorf("--chown is only supported when the storage entry uses the default host path (%s); use --chown false and chown %s manually", defaultHostPath, entry.HostPath)
+		}
+	}
+
 	info, err := os.Stat(entry.HostPath)
 	if err != nil && !os.IsNotExist(err) {
 		return fmt.Errorf("unable to stat %s: %w", entry.HostPath, err)
@@ -519,7 +526,7 @@ func ensureDockerLocalPath(entry *Entry) error {
 			chownScript := filepath.Join(pluginPath, "storage", "bin", "chown-storage-dir")
 			result, err := common.CallExecCommand(common.ExecCommandInput{
 				Command: "sudo",
-				Args:    []string{chownScript, entry.HostPath, chownID},
+				Args:    []string{chownScript, entry.Name, chownID},
 			})
 			if err != nil {
 				return fmt.Errorf("unable to chown %s: %w", entry.HostPath, err)
diff --git a/tests/unit/storage.bats b/tests/unit/storage.bats
index 6da3920fd..1ab58c27e 100644
--- a/tests/unit/storage.bats
+++ b/tests/unit/storage.bats
@@ -240,6 +240,38 @@ teardown() {
   assert_success
 }
 
+@test "(storage:create) --chown sets directory ownership" {
+  run /bin/bash -c "dokku storage:create --chown herokuish rdmtest-chown"
+  echo "output: $output"
+  echo "status: $status"
+  assert_success
+
+  run /bin/bash -c "stat -c '%u:%g' $DOKKU_LIB_ROOT/data/storage/rdmtest-chown"
+  echo "output: $output"
+  echo "status: $status"
+  assert_success
+  assert_output "32767:32767"
+
+  run /bin/bash -c "dokku storage:destroy rdmtest-chown --force"
+  assert_success
+}
+
+@test "(storage:create) --chown rejects a non-default host path" {
+  custom_path="/tmp/rdmtest-chown-custom"
+  rm -rf "$custom_path"
+
+  run /bin/bash -c "dokku storage:create --chown herokuish rdmtest-chown-custom $custom_path"
+  echo "output: $output"
+  echo "status: $status"
+  assert_failure
+  assert_output_contains "--chown is only supported when the storage entry uses the default host path"
+
+  run /bin/bash -c "dokku storage:list-entries --format json | jq -r '.[].name' | grep '^rdmtest-chown-custom$' || true"
+  assert_output ""
+
+  rm -rf "$custom_path"
+}
+
 @test "(storage) storage:create rejects invalid names" {
   # underscore: rejected
   run /bin/bash -c "dokku storage:create rdmtest_invalid"