diff --git a/lib/oofatfs/ff.c b/lib/oofatfs/ff.c
index b0984756b..71bd19702 100644
--- a/lib/oofatfs/ff.c
+++ b/lib/oofatfs/ff.c
@@ -3382,7 +3382,11 @@ FRESULT f_read (
             if (!sect) ABORT(fs, FR_INT_ERR);
             sect += csect;
             cc = btr / SS(fs);                  /* When remaining bytes >= sector size, */
-            if (cc) {                           /* Read maximum contiguous sectors directly */
+            if (cc
+#if _FS_DISK_READ_ALIGNED
+                    && (((int)rbuff & 3) == 0)
+#endif
+                    ) {/* Read maximum contiguous sectors directly */
                 if (csect + cc > fs->csize) {   /* Clip at cluster boundary */
                     cc = fs->csize - csect;
                 }
diff --git a/lib/oofatfs/ffconf.h b/lib/oofatfs/ffconf.h
index 214311b4c..a3795fa3f 100644
--- a/lib/oofatfs/ffconf.h
+++ b/lib/oofatfs/ffconf.h
@@ -343,6 +343,12 @@
 /  SemaphoreHandle_t and etc.. A header file for O/S definitions needs to be
 /  included somewhere in the scope of ff.h. */
 
+// Set to nonzero if buffers passed to disk_read have a word alignment
+// restriction
+#ifndef _FS_DISK_READ_ALIGNED
+#define _FS_DISK_READ_ALIGNED 0
+#endif
+
 /* #include <windows.h> // O/S definitions  */
 
 
diff --git a/ports/nrf/Makefile b/ports/nrf/Makefile
index be8a71b3f..096dfaa4b 100755
--- a/ports/nrf/Makefile
+++ b/ports/nrf/Makefile
@@ -106,6 +106,7 @@ CFLAGS += -Wno-undef
 CFLAGS += -Wno-cast-align
 
 NRF_DEFINES += -DCONFIG_GPIO_AS_PINRESET
+NRF_DEFINES += -D_FS_DISK_READ_ALIGNED=1
 CFLAGS += $(NRF_DEFINES)
 
 CFLAGS += \