--- xfconf-4.6.1.orig/xfconfd/xfconf-backend-perchannel-xml.c
+++ xfconf-4.6.1/xfconfd/xfconf-backend-perchannel-xml.c
@@ -1643,18 +1643,27 @@
                                            GError **error)
 {
     XfconfChannel *channel = NULL;
-    gchar *filename_stem, **filenames, *user_file;
-    gint i;
+    gchar *filename_stem, **xdg_filenames, **filenames, *user_file;
+    gint i, size;
     XfconfProperty *prop;
 
     TRACE("entering");
 
     filename_stem = g_strdup_printf(CONFIG_FILE_FMT, channel_name);
-    filenames = xfce_resource_lookup_all(XFCE_RESOURCE_CONFIG, filename_stem);
+    xdg_filenames = xfce_resource_lookup_all(XFCE_RESOURCE_CONFIG, filename_stem);
     user_file = xfce_resource_save_location(XFCE_RESOURCE_CONFIG,
                                             filename_stem, FALSE);
     g_free(filename_stem);
 
+    /* reverse array, to respect xdg base dirs' priority when merging */
+    for(size = 0; xdg_filenames[size]; ++size);
+    filenames = g_new(gchar *, size + 1);
+    for(i = 0; xdg_filenames[i]; ++i) {
+        filenames[i] = xdg_filenames[size - 1 - i];
+    }
+    filenames[i] = NULL;
+    g_free(xdg_filenames);
+
     if((!filenames || !filenames[0]) && !user_file) {
         if(error) {
             g_set_error(error, XFCONF_ERROR,