diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index e7a33226..7a58948e 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -3,9 +3,11 @@
 Repo for [mergin](https://public.cloudmergin.com/) client and basic utils.
 
 ## Development
-Python 3.6+ required. Install dependencies:
-
+Python 3.6+ required. Create `mergin/deps` folder where [geodiff](https://github.com/lutraconsulting/geodiff) lib is supposed to be and install dependencies:
+    
+    mkdir -p mergin/deps
     pipenv install --dev --three
+    pipenv run pip install -r <(pipenv lock -r | grep pygeodiff) --target mergin/deps
 
 For using mergin client with its dependencies packaged locally run:
 
@@ -13,7 +15,7 @@ For using mergin client with its dependencies packaged locally run:
     python3 setup.py sdist bdist_wheel
     mkdir -p mergin/deps
     pip wheel -r mergin_client.egg-info/requires.txt -w mergin/deps
-
+    unzip mergin/deps/pygeodiff-*.whl -d mergin/deps 
 
 ## Tests
 For running test do:
diff --git a/mergin/client.py b/mergin/client.py
index d4e0d9e7..869cc4e9 100644
--- a/mergin/client.py
+++ b/mergin/client.py
@@ -20,7 +20,6 @@
 try:
     import dateutil.parser
     from dateutil.tz import tzlocal
-    import pygeodiff
 except ImportError:
     # this is to import all dependencies shipped with package (e.g. to use in qgis-plugin)
     deps_dir = os.path.join(this_dir, 'deps')
@@ -31,7 +30,11 @@
 
         import dateutil.parser
         from dateutil.tz import tzlocal
-        import pygeodiff
+
+try:
+    from .deps import pygeodiff
+except ImportError:
+    os.environ['GEODIFF_ENABLED'] = 'False'
 
 CHUNK_SIZE = 100 * 1024 * 1024
 # there is an upper limit for chunk size on server, ideally should be requested from there once implemented
@@ -60,7 +63,15 @@ def __init__(self, directory):
         if not os.path.exists(self.dir):
             raise InvalidProject('Project directory does not exist')
 
-        self.geodiff = pygeodiff.GeoDiff() if os.environ.get('GEODIFF_ENABLED', 'True').lower() == 'true' else None
+        # make sure we can load correct pygeodiff
+        if os.environ.get('GEODIFF_ENABLED', 'True').lower() == 'true':
+            try:
+                self.geodiff = pygeodiff.GeoDiff()
+            except pygeodiff.geodifflib.GeoDiffLibVersionError:
+                self.geodiff = None
+        else:
+            self.geodiff = None
+
         self.meta_dir = os.path.join(self.dir, '.mergin')
         if not os.path.exists(self.meta_dir):
             os.mkdir(self.meta_dir)