diff --git a/contrib/build-linux/appimage/build.sh b/contrib/build-linux/appimage/build.sh
index 396380d98..1a0406120 100755
--- a/contrib/build-linux/appimage/build.sh
+++ b/contrib/build-linux/appimage/build.sh
@@ -138,6 +138,9 @@ mkdir -p "$CACHEDIR/pip_cache"
 "$python" -m pip install --no-dependencies --no-warn-script-location --cache-dir "$CACHEDIR/pip_cache" -r "$CONTRIB/deterministic-build/requirements-hw.txt"
 "$python" -m pip install --no-dependencies --no-warn-script-location --cache-dir "$CACHEDIR/pip_cache" "$PROJECT_ROOT"
 
+# was only needed during build time, not runtime
+"$python" -m pip uninstall -y Cython
+
 
 info "copying zbar"
 cp "/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libzbar.so.0" "$APPDIR/usr/lib/libzbar.so.0"
@@ -203,8 +206,6 @@ rm -rf "$PYDIR"/{ctypes,sqlite3,tkinter,unittest}/test
 rm -rf "$PYDIR"/distutils/{command,tests}
 rm -rf "$PYDIR"/config-3.7m-x86_64-linux-gnu
 rm -rf "$PYDIR"/site-packages/{opt,pip,setuptools,wheel}
-rm -rf "$PYDIR"/site-packages/Cython/Tests
-rm -rf "$PYDIR"/site-packages/Cython/*/Tests
 rm -rf "$PYDIR"/site-packages/Cryptodome/SelfTest
 rm -rf "$PYDIR"/site-packages/{psutil,qrcode,websocket}/tests
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