diff --git a/Lib/test/data/README b/Lib/test/data/README
index 8bf8c9b..bd05984 100644
--- a/Lib/test/data/README
+++ b/Lib/test/data/README
@@ -1,2 +1,2 @@
 This empty directory serves as destination for temporary files
-created by some tests.
+created by some tests, in particular, the test_codecmaps_* tests.
diff --git a/Makefile.pre.in b/Makefile.pre.in
index ea08165..c2b1a11 100644
--- a/Makefile.pre.in
+++ b/Makefile.pre.in
@@ -912,7 +912,7 @@
 XMLLIBSUBDIRS=  xml xml/dom xml/etree xml/parsers xml/sax
 LIBSUBDIRS=	tkinter tkinter/test tkinter/test/test_tkinter \
 		tkinter/test/test_ttk site-packages test \
-		test/capath \
+		test/capath test/data \
 		test/cjkencodings test/decimaltestdata test/xmltestdata \
 		test/subprocessdata \
 		test/tracedmodules test/encoded_modules \
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index ddda39f..d4c9258 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -981,7 +981,10 @@
 Tests
 -----
 
-- Issue #12496:  Install test/capath directory to prevent test_connect_capath
+- Issue #12497: Install test/data to prevent failures of the various codecmaps
+  tests.
+
+- Issue #12496: Install test/capath directory to prevent test_connect_capath
   testcase failure in test_ssl.
 
 - Issue #12469: Run wakeup and pending signal tests in a subprocess to run the