diff --git a/tests/DumpRenderTree/src/com/android/dumprendertree/TestShellActivity.java b/tests/DumpRenderTree/src/com/android/dumprendertree/TestShellActivity.java
index 4ba2e18f01f3a..945b8f21ecfdc 100644
--- a/tests/DumpRenderTree/src/com/android/dumprendertree/TestShellActivity.java
+++ b/tests/DumpRenderTree/src/com/android/dumprendertree/TestShellActivity.java
@@ -916,6 +916,9 @@ public class TestShellActivity extends Activity implements LayoutTestController
         settings.setWorkersEnabled(false);
         settings.setXSSAuditorEnabled(false);
         settings.setPageCacheCapacity(0);
+        // this enables cpu upload path (as opposed to gpu upload path)
+        // and it's only meant to be a temporary workaround!
+        settings.setProperty("enable_cpu_upload_path", "true");
     }
 
     private WebView mWebView;