diff --git a/freqtrade/loggers/__init__.py b/freqtrade/loggers/__init__.py
index 1cc0590a1..7e18d3cba 100644
--- a/freqtrade/loggers/__init__.py
+++ b/freqtrade/loggers/__init__.py
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 import logging
 from logging import Formatter
 from logging.handlers import RotatingFileHandler, SysLogHandler
+from pathlib import Path
 
 from freqtrade.constants import Config
 from freqtrade.exceptions import OperationalException
@@ -86,11 +87,23 @@ def setup_logging(config: Config) -> None:
             handler_rf = get_existing_handlers(RotatingFileHandler)
             if handler_rf:
                 logging.root.removeHandler(handler_rf)
-            handler_rf = RotatingFileHandler(
-                logfile,
-                maxBytes=1024 * 1024 * 10,  # 10Mb
-                backupCount=10,
-            )
+            try:
+                logfile_path = Path(logfile)
+                logfile_path.parent.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
+                handler_rf = RotatingFileHandler(
+                    logfile_path,
+                    maxBytes=1024 * 1024 * 10,  # 10Mb
+                    backupCount=10,
+                )
+            except PermissionError:
+                raise OperationalException(
+                    f'Failed to create or access log file "{logfile_path.absolute()}". '
+                    "Please make sure you have the write permission to the log file or its parent "
+                    "directories. If you're running freqtrade using docker, you see this error "
+                    "message probably because you've logged in as the root user, please switch to "
+                    "non-root user, delete and recreate the directories you need, and then try "
+                    "again."
+                )
             handler_rf.setFormatter(Formatter(LOGFORMAT))
             logging.root.addHandler(handler_rf)
 
diff --git a/tests/test_log_setup.py b/tests/test_log_setup.py
index 142134b34..6dc88b79d 100644
--- a/tests/test_log_setup.py
+++ b/tests/test_log_setup.py
@@ -86,7 +86,7 @@ def test_set_loggers_Filehandler(tmp_path):
     logger = logging.getLogger()
     orig_handlers = logger.handlers
     logger.handlers = []
-    logfile = tmp_path / "ft_logfile.log"
+    logfile = tmp_path / "logs/ft_logfile.log"
     config = {
         "verbosity": 2,
         "logfile": str(logfile),
@@ -107,6 +107,29 @@ def test_set_loggers_Filehandler(tmp_path):
     logger.handlers = orig_handlers
 
 
+@pytest.mark.skipif(sys.platform == "win32", reason="does not run on windows")
+def test_set_loggers_Filehandler_without_permission(tmp_path):
+    logger = logging.getLogger()
+    orig_handlers = logger.handlers
+    logger.handlers = []
+
+    try:
+        tmp_path.chmod(0o400)
+        logfile = tmp_path / "logs/ft_logfile.log"
+        config = {
+            "verbosity": 2,
+            "logfile": str(logfile),
+        }
+
+        setup_logging_pre()
+        with pytest.raises(OperationalException):
+            setup_logging(config)
+
+        logger.handlers = orig_handlers
+    finally:
+        tmp_path.chmod(0o700)
+
+
 @pytest.mark.skip(reason="systemd is not installed on every system, so we're not testing this.")
 def test_set_loggers_journald(mocker):
     logger = logging.getLogger()