diff --git a/lisp/doom-projects.el b/lisp/doom-projects.el
index 462ccc863..d7bc9840a 100644
--- a/lisp/doom-projects.el
+++ b/lisp/doom-projects.el
@@ -44,13 +44,19 @@ debian, and derivatives). On most it's 'fd'.")
   (global-set-key [remap find-tag]         #'projectile-find-tag)
 
   :config
-  (projectile-mode +1)
-
-  ;; Auto-discovery on `projectile-mode' is slow and premature. Let's defer it
-  ;; until it's actually needed. Also clean up non-existing projects too!
+  ;; HACK: Projectile cleans up the known projects list at startup. If this list
+  ;;   contains tramp paths, the `file-remote-p' calls will pull in tramp via
+  ;;   its `file-name-handler-alist' entry, which is expensive. Since Doom
+  ;;   already cleans up the project list on kill-emacs-hook, it's simplest to
+  ;;   inhibit this cleanup process at startup (see bbatsov/projectile#1649).
+  (letf! ((#'projectile--cleanup-known-projects #'ignore))
+    (projectile-mode +1))
+  ;; HACK: Auto-discovery and cleanup on `projectile-mode' is slow and
+  ;;   premature. Let's try to defer it until it's needed.
   (add-transient-hook! 'projectile-relevant-known-projects
-    (projectile-cleanup-known-projects)
-    (projectile-discover-projects-in-search-path))
+    (projectile--cleanup-known-projects)
+    (when projectile-auto-discover
+      (projectile-discover-projects-in-search-path)))
 
   ;; Projectile runs four functions to determine the root (in this order):
   ;;