diff --git a/build/moz.configure/old.configure b/build/moz.configure/old.configure
index 843de98fd590..aacfa8009c4f 100644
--- a/build/moz.configure/old.configure
+++ b/build/moz.configure/old.configure
@@ -234,7 +234,6 @@ def old_configure_options(*options):
     '--enable-tasktracer',
     '--enable-thread-sanitizer',
     '--enable-trace-logging',
-    '--enable-tree-freetype',
     '--enable-ui-locale',
     '--enable-universalchardet',
     '--enable-updater',
diff --git a/old-configure.in b/old-configure.in
index d196a0885088..1347c408e213 100644
--- a/old-configure.in
+++ b/old-configure.in
@@ -2359,7 +2359,6 @@ esac
 case "${target}" in
     *-android*|*-linuxandroid*)
         MOZ_THEME_FASTSTRIPE=1
-        MOZ_TREE_FREETYPE=1
         MOZ_RAW=1
         ;;
 
@@ -3854,33 +3853,13 @@ if test -n "$MOZ_USE_NATIVE_POPUP_WINDOWS"; then
   AC_DEFINE(MOZ_USE_NATIVE_POPUP_WINDOWS)
 fi
 
-dnl ========================================================
-dnl Build Freetype in the tree
-dnl ========================================================
-MOZ_ARG_ENABLE_BOOL(tree-freetype,
-[  --enable-tree-freetype  Enable Tree FreeType],
-    MOZ_TREE_FREETYPE=1,
-    MOZ_TREE_FREETYPE= )
 if test -n "$MOZ_TREE_FREETYPE"; then
-   if test -n "$_WIN32_MSVC"; then
-      AC_ERROR("building with in-tree freetype is not supported on MSVC")
-   fi
-   AC_DEFINE(MOZ_TREE_FREETYPE)
-   AC_SUBST(MOZ_TREE_FREETYPE)
    MOZ_ENABLE_CAIRO_FT=1
    FT_FONT_FEATURE="#define CAIRO_HAS_FT_FONT 1"
-   FT2_CFLAGS="-I$_topsrcdir/modules/freetype2/include"
    CAIRO_FT_CFLAGS="-I$_topsrcdir/modules/freetype2/include"
-   CAIRO_FT_OSLIBS=''
-   AC_DEFINE(HAVE_FT_BITMAP_SIZE_Y_PPEM)
-   AC_DEFINE(HAVE_FT_GLYPHSLOT_EMBOLDEN)
-   AC_DEFINE(HAVE_FT_LOAD_SFNT_TABLE)
    AC_SUBST_LIST(CAIRO_FT_CFLAGS)
 fi
 
-AC_SUBST_LIST(FT2_CFLAGS)
-AC_SUBST_LIST(FT2_LIBS)
-
 AC_CHECK_PROGS(WGET, wget, "")
 AC_SUBST(WGET)
 
@@ -5136,7 +5115,7 @@ if test "$USE_FC_FREETYPE"; then
         dnl ========================================================
         dnl = Check for freetype2 functionality
         dnl ========================================================
-        if test "$_HAVE_FREETYPE2"; then
+        if test "$_HAVE_FREETYPE2" -a -z "$MOZ_TREE_FREETYPE"; then
             _SAVE_LIBS="$LIBS"
             _SAVE_CFLAGS="$CFLAGS"
             LIBS="$LIBS $FT2_LIBS"
@@ -5284,8 +5263,6 @@ if test "$MOZ_TREE_CAIRO"; then
     AC_SUBST(QT_SURFACE_FEATURE)
     AC_SUBST(TEE_SURFACE_FEATURE)
 
-    MOZ_CAIRO_OSLIBS='${CAIRO_FT_OSLIBS}'
-
     if test "$MOZ_X11"; then
         MOZ_CAIRO_OSLIBS="$MOZ_CAIRO_OSLIBS $XLDFLAGS -lXrender"
     fi
diff --git a/toolkit/moz.configure b/toolkit/moz.configure
index 80c3a3976b6c..54a7ddbe3b60 100644
--- a/toolkit/moz.configure
+++ b/toolkit/moz.configure
@@ -307,11 +307,35 @@ def freetype2_combined_info(fontconfig_info, freetype2_info):
 
 add_old_configure_assignment('_HAVE_FREETYPE2',
                              depends_if(freetype2_info)(lambda _: True))
-add_old_configure_assignment('FT2_LIBS',
-                             delayed_getattr(freetype2_combined_info, 'libs'))
-add_old_configure_assignment('FT2_CFLAGS',
-                             delayed_getattr(freetype2_combined_info, 'cflags'))
 
+# Build Freetype in the tree
+# ==============================================================
+@depends(target)
+def tree_freetype(target):
+    if target.os == 'Android':
+        return True
+
+set_define('MOZ_TREE_FREETYPE', tree_freetype)
+set_config('MOZ_TREE_FREETYPE', tree_freetype)
+add_old_configure_assignment('MOZ_TREE_FREETYPE', tree_freetype)
+
+set_define('HAVE_FT_BITMAP_SIZE_Y_PPEM', tree_freetype)
+set_define('HAVE_FT_GLYPHSLOT_EMBOLDEN', tree_freetype)
+set_define('HAVE_FT_LOAD_SFNT_TABLE', tree_freetype)
+
+@depends(freetype2_combined_info, tree_freetype, check_build_environment)
+def ft2_info(freetype2_combined_info, tree_freetype, build_env):
+    if tree_freetype:
+        return namespace(cflags=('-I%s/modules/freetype2/include' % build_env.topsrcdir,),
+                         libs=())
+    if freetype2_combined_info:
+        return freetype2_combined_info
+
+set_config('FT2_LIBS', delayed_getattr(ft2_info, 'libs'))
+add_old_configure_assignment('FT2_LIBS',
+                             delayed_getattr(ft2_info, 'libs'))
+add_old_configure_assignment('FT2_CFLAGS',
+                             delayed_getattr(ft2_info, 'cflags'))
 
 # Apple platform decoder support
 # ==============================================================