diff --git a/tools/releasetools/common.py b/tools/releasetools/common.py
index f17971777d..d0d57a9949 100644
--- a/tools/releasetools/common.py
+++ b/tools/releasetools/common.py
@@ -756,6 +756,7 @@ class DeviceSpecificParams(object):
           if x == ".py":
             f = b
           info = imp.find_module(f, [d])
+        print "loaded device-specific extensions from", path
         self.module = imp.load_module("device_specific", *info)
       except ImportError:
         print "unable to load device-specific module; assuming none"
diff --git a/tools/releasetools/ota_from_target_files b/tools/releasetools/ota_from_target_files
index a31d70aaf0..9908a25eb7 100755
--- a/tools/releasetools/ota_from_target_files
+++ b/tools/releasetools/ota_from_target_files
@@ -1011,11 +1011,23 @@ def main(argv):
     print "--- target info ---"
     common.DumpInfoDict(OPTIONS.info_dict)
 
+  # If the caller explicitly specified the device-specific extensions
+  # path via -s/--device_specific, use that.  Otherwise, use
+  # META/releasetools.py if it is present in the target target_files.
+  # Otherwise, take the path of the file from 'tool_extensions' in the
+  # info dict and look for that in the local filesystem, relative to
+  # the current directory.
+
   if OPTIONS.device_specific is None:
-    OPTIONS.device_specific = OPTIONS.info_dict.get("tool_extensions", None)
+    from_input = os.path.join(OPTIONS.input_tmp, "META", "releasetools.py")
+    if os.path.exists(from_input):
+      print "(using device-specific extensions from target_files)"
+      OPTIONS.device_specific = from_input
+    else:
+      OPTIONS.device_specific = OPTIONS.info_dict.get("tool_extensions", None)
+
   if OPTIONS.device_specific is not None:
-    OPTIONS.device_specific = os.path.normpath(OPTIONS.device_specific)
-    print "using device-specific extensions in", OPTIONS.device_specific
+    OPTIONS.device_specific = os.path.abspath(OPTIONS.device_specific)
 
   temp_zip_file = tempfile.NamedTemporaryFile()
   output_zip = zipfile.ZipFile(temp_zip_file, "w",