diff --git a/update.py b/update.py
index a077e3fbef..c956c20313 100755
--- a/update.py
+++ b/update.py
@@ -50,26 +50,20 @@
 from concurrent.futures import ThreadPoolExecutor
 from typing import Optional, Dict, List
 
-if sys.version_info <= (3,11):
-    import distutils
+from frontend.scripts import get_discourse_posts
+import rst_table
+
+from codecs import open
+from datetime import datetime
 
 try:
-    from sphinx.application import Sphinx
+    from sphinx.application import Sphinx  # noqa: F401
 except ModuleNotFoundError as e:
-    print("Please make sure that you have run the SphinxSetup script for your system and that you have activated the arudpilot-wiki-venv if it was created on your system")
+    print("Please make sure that you have run the SphinxSetup script for your system and that you have activated the",
+          "arudpilot-wiki-venv if it was created on your system")
     print(e)
     sys.exit(1)
 
-from codecs import open
-from datetime import datetime
-# while flake8 says this is unused, distutils.dir_util.mkpath fails
-# without the following import on old versions of Python:
-if sys.version_info <= (3, 11):
-    from distutils import dir_util  # noqa: F401
-
-from frontend.scripts import get_discourse_posts
-import rst_table
-
 if sys.version_info < (3, 8):
     print("Minimum python version is 3.8")
     sys.exit(1)
@@ -372,14 +366,14 @@ def make_backup(site, destdir, backupdestdir):
         debug('Backing up: %s' % wiki)
 
         targetdir = os.path.join(destdir, wiki)
-        distutils.dir_util.mkpath(targetdir)
+        os.makedirs(targetdir, exist_ok=True)
 
         if not os.path.exists(targetdir):
             fatal("FAIL backup when looking for folder %s" % targetdir)
 
         bkdir = os.path.join(backupdestdir, str(building_time + '-wiki-bkp'), str(wiki))
         debug('Checking %s' % bkdir)
-        distutils.dir_util.mkpath(bkdir)
+        os.makedirs(bkdir, exist_ok=True)
         debug('Copying %s into %s' % (targetdir, bkdir))
         try:
             subprocess.check_call(["rsync", "-a", "--delete", targetdir + "/", bkdir])