diff --git a/package/apache/apache.mk b/package/apache/apache.mk
index 8e7b6be40d..e752fcc6c5 100644
--- a/package/apache/apache.mk
+++ b/package/apache/apache.mk
@@ -35,10 +35,6 @@ APACHE_CONF_OPTS = \
 	--disable-lua \
 	--disable-luajit
 
-ifeq ($(BR2_ARCH_HAS_ATOMICS),y)
-APACHE_CONF_OPTS += --enable-nonportable-atomics=yes
-endif
-
 ifeq ($(BR2_PACKAGE_LIBXML2),y)
 APACHE_DEPENDENCIES += libxml2
 # Apache wants the path to the header file, where it can find
diff --git a/package/apr/apr.mk b/package/apr/apr.mk
index 0fed19c54d..361a79f99b 100644
--- a/package/apr/apr.mk
+++ b/package/apr/apr.mk
@@ -35,6 +35,21 @@ endif
 # Fix lfs detection when cross compiling
 APR_CONF_ENV += apr_cv_use_lfs64=yes
 
+# Use non-portable atomics when available: 8 bytes atomics are used on
+# 64-bits architectures, 4 bytes atomics on 32-bits architectures. We
+# have to override ap_cv_atomic_builtins because the test used to
+# check for atomic builtins uses AC_TRY_RUN, which doesn't work when
+# cross-compiling.
+ifeq ($(BR2_ARCH_IS_64):$(BR2_TOOLCHAIN_HAS_SYNC_8),y:y)
+APR_CONF_OPTS += --enable-nonportable-atomics
+APR_CONF_ENV += ap_cv_atomic_builtins=yes
+else ifeq ($(BR2_ARCH_IS_64):$(BR2_TOOLCHAIN_HAS_SYNC_4),:y)
+APR_CONF_OPTS += --enable-nonportable-atomics
+APR_CONF_ENV += ap_cv_atomic_builtins=yes
+else
+APR_CONF_OPTS += --disable-nonportable-atomics
+endif
+
 ifeq ($(BR2_PACKAGE_UTIL_LINUX_LIBUUID),y)
 APR_DEPENDENCIES += util-linux
 endif