--- xfconf-4.6.1.orig/xfconfd/xfconf-backend-perchannel-xml.c
+++ xfconf-4.6.1/xfconfd/xfconf-backend-perchannel-xml.c
@@ -1644,7 +1644,7 @@
 {
     XfconfChannel *channel = NULL;
     gchar *filename_stem, **filenames, *user_file;
-    gint i;
+    gint i, size;
     XfconfProperty *prop;
 
     TRACE("entering");
@@ -1669,8 +1669,12 @@
     prop->name = g_strdup("/");
     channel->properties = g_node_new(prop);
 
+    /* find array size, allows parsing it backward to respect xdg base
+       dirs' priority when merging */
+    for(size = 0; filenames[size]; ++size);
+
     /* read in system files */
-    for(i = 0; filenames[i]; ++i) {
+    for(i = size - 1; (filenames[i]) && (i >= 0); --i) {
         if(user_file && !strcmp(filenames[i], user_file))
             continue;
         xfconf_backend_perchannel_xml_merge_file(xbpx, filenames[i], TRUE,