diff --git a/camera/lyric.mk b/camera/lyric.mk
index c886138..0ec1d6d 100644
--- a/camera/lyric.mk
+++ b/camera/lyric.mk
@@ -20,8 +20,20 @@ endif
 # All shipping releases will switch to prebuilts (trunk+)
 # if this condition is not true, then build from source.
 
-ifneq ($(RELEASE_PIXEL_CAMERA_ENABLE_PREBUILT),true)
+# Fallback if the prebuilts directory does not exist, then we must
+# build from source no matter what, so we log a warning
+ifeq ($(RELEASE_PIXEL_CAMERA_ENABLE_PREBUILT),true)
+  ifeq ($(wildcard vendor/google/services/LyricCameraHAL/prebuilt),)
+    $(warning Lyric prebuilt directory is missing, it will be built from source)
+    BUILD_LYRIC_FROM_SOURCE := true
+  else
+    BUILD_LYRIC_FROM_SOURCE := false
+  endif
+else
+  BUILD_LYRIC_FROM_SOURCE := true
+endif  # RELEASE_PIXEL_CAMERA_ENABLE_PREBUILT
 
+ifeq ($(BUILD_LYRIC_FROM_SOURCE),true)
 PRODUCT_SOONG_NAMESPACES += \
     vendor/google/camera \
     vendor/google/camera/google_3a/libs_v4 \
@@ -41,7 +53,7 @@ PRODUCT_SOONG_NAMESPACES += \
 # Calibration tool for debug builds
 PRODUCT_PACKAGES_DEBUG += tarasque_test
 PRODUCT_PACKAGES_DEBUG += ProtoCalibGenerator
-endif  # RELEASE_PIXEL_CAMERA_ENABLE_PREBUILT check
+endif  # BUILD_LYRIC_FROM_SOURCE
 
 # Init-time log settings for Google 3A
 PRODUCT_PACKAGES += libg3a_standalone_gabc_rc