diff --git a/pkgs/applications/editors/emacs/elisp-packages/melpa-packages.nix b/pkgs/applications/editors/emacs/elisp-packages/melpa-packages.nix
index 42e2340d7238..455d8df7530a 100644
--- a/pkgs/applications/editors/emacs/elisp-packages/melpa-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/applications/editors/emacs/elisp-packages/melpa-packages.nix
@@ -793,6 +793,18 @@ let
         # depends on distel which is not on any ELPA https://github.com/massemanet/distel/issues/21
         auto-complete-distel = ignoreCompilationError super.auto-complete-distel;
 
+        auto-virtualenv = super.auto-virtualenv.overrideAttrs (
+          finalAttrs: previousAttrs: {
+            patches = previousAttrs.patches or [ ] ++ [
+              (pkgs.fetchpatch {
+                name = "do-not-error-if-the-optional-projectile-is-not-available.patch";
+                url = "https://github.com/marcwebbie/auto-virtualenv/pull/14/commits/9a068974a4e12958200c12c6a23372fa736523c1.patch";
+                hash = "sha256-bqrroFf5AD5SHx6uzBFdVwTv3SbFiO39T+0x03Ves/k=";
+              })
+            ];
+          }
+        );
+
         aws-ec2 = ignoreCompilationError super.aws-ec2; # elisp error
 
         badger-theme = ignoreCompilationError super.badger-theme; # elisp error