diff --git a/python/setup.py b/python/setup.py
index 20b97ee9d..2c82ad1d9 100644
--- a/python/setup.py
+++ b/python/setup.py
@@ -58,7 +58,8 @@ ray_files = [
     "ray/streaming/_streaming.so",
 ]
 
-if BUILD_JAVA:
+if BUILD_JAVA or os.path.exists(
+        os.path.join(ROOT_DIR, "ray/jars/ray_dist.jar")):
     ray_files.append("ray/jars/ray_dist.jar")
 
 # These are the directories where automatically generated Python protobuf