diff --git a/package/utils/busybox/Config-defaults.in b/package/utils/busybox/Config-defaults.in
index c12cf2ad16..aad6086d4b 100644
--- a/package/utils/busybox/Config-defaults.in
+++ b/package/utils/busybox/Config-defaults.in
@@ -1656,7 +1656,7 @@ config BUSYBOX_DEFAULT_FEATURE_CROND_CALL_SENDMAIL
 	default n
 config BUSYBOX_DEFAULT_FEATURE_CROND_DIR
 	string
-	default "/var/spool/cron"
+	default "/etc"
 config BUSYBOX_DEFAULT_CRONTAB
 	bool
 	default y
diff --git a/package/utils/busybox/patches/200-etc_crontabs.patch b/package/utils/busybox/patches/200-etc_crontabs.patch
deleted file mode 100644
index ebf2990502..0000000000
--- a/package/utils/busybox/patches/200-etc_crontabs.patch
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,22 +0,0 @@
---- a/miscutils/crond.c
-+++ b/miscutils/crond.c
-@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@
- 
- 
- #define TMPDIR          CONFIG_FEATURE_CROND_DIR
--#define CRONTABS        CONFIG_FEATURE_CROND_DIR "/crontabs"
-+#define CRONTABS        "/etc/crontabs"
- #ifndef SENDMAIL
- # define SENDMAIL       "sendmail"
- #endif
---- a/miscutils/crontab.c
-+++ b/miscutils/crontab.c
-@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@
- 
- #include "libbb.h"
- 
--#define CRONTABS        CONFIG_FEATURE_CROND_DIR "/crontabs"
-+#define CRONTABS        "/etc/crontabs"
- #ifndef CRONUPDATE
- #define CRONUPDATE      "cron.update"
- #endif