diff --git a/util/android-commands.sh b/util/android-commands.sh
index 48fdd86d8..ac8491744 100755
--- a/util/android-commands.sh
+++ b/util/android-commands.sh
@@ -515,7 +515,10 @@ snapshot() {
 
     echo "Installing cargo-nextest"
     # We need to install nextest via cargo currently, since there is no pre-built binary for android x86
-    command="export CARGO_TERM_COLOR=always && cargo install cargo-nextest"
+    # explicitly set CARGO_TARGET_DIR as otherwise a random generated tmp directory is used,
+    # which prevents incremental build for the retries.
+    command="export CARGO_TERM_COLOR=always && export CARGO_TARGET_DIR=\"cargo_install_target_dir\" && cargo install cargo-nextest"
+
     run_with_retry 3 run_command_via_ssh "$command"
     return_code=$?