diff --git a/lib/capistrano/recipes/deploy/assets.rb b/lib/capistrano/recipes/deploy/assets.rb
index a3c4fdf70..08f495d7e 100644
--- a/lib/capistrano/recipes/deploy/assets.rb
+++ b/lib/capistrano/recipes/deploy/assets.rb
@@ -34,6 +34,14 @@ def parse_manifest(str)
   assets_hash.to_a.flatten.map {|a| [a, "#{a}.gz"]}.flatten
 end
 
+def number_of_manifests
+  output = capture("ls -1 #{shared_path.shellescape}/#{shared_assets_prefix}/manifest* | grep -v \"manifest.js.gz\"")
+  # splitting on "." because File.basename(path, ".*") only removes the *first* extension, so for x.js.gz, it will return x.js
+  output = output.map { |path| File.basename(path).split(".")[0] }
+  # we may get manifest-X.js and manifest-X.js.gz, so we shouldn't count those as unique manifests
+  return output.uniq.size
+end
+
 namespace :deploy do
   namespace :assets do
     desc <<-DESC
@@ -91,10 +99,9 @@ def parse_manifest(str)
         logger.info 'Ignoring multiple asset/clean_expired manifests...'
       end
       if should_retry_if_multi
-        # test for multiple
-        if capture("ls -1 #{shared_path.shellescape}/#{shared_assets_prefix}/manifest* | grep -v \"manifest.js.gz\" | wc -l").to_i > 1
+        if number_of_manifests > 1
           logger.info "Multiple manifest assets detected; clearing old assets..."
-          run "mv #{shared_path.shellescape}/#{shared_assets_prefix} '/tmp/#{shared_assets_prefix}-#{Time.now.to_s}'"
+          run "mv #{shared_path.shellescape}/#{shared_assets_prefix} '/tmp/#{shared_assets_prefix}-#{Time.now.to_s}' && mkdir #{shared_path.shellescape}/#{shared_assets_prefix} && chmod 775 #{shared_path.shellescape}/#{shared_assets_prefix}"
           run <<-CMD.compact
 				sudo -n rm -f /tmp/assets-precompile-output*.log > /dev/null || true ; 
 				#{precompile_command}
@@ -104,7 +111,7 @@ def parse_manifest(str)
         end
 
         # test again
-        if capture("ls -1 #{shared_path.shellescape}/#{shared_assets_prefix}/manifest* | grep -v \"manifest.js.gz\" | wc -l").to_i > 1
+        if number_of_manifests > 1
           logger.info "Multiple manifest assets still detected; skipping..."
         end