diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index fae7d804f97..29a74a0335e 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -5198,7 +5198,6 @@ dependencies = [
  "rand 0.9.2",
  "rstest 0.23.0",
  "serde",
- "shellexpand",
  "snafu",
  "tempfile",
  "test-log",
@@ -8165,15 +8164,6 @@ dependencies = [
  "lazy_static",
 ]
 
-[[package]]
-name = "shellexpand"
-version = "3.1.1"
-source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "8b1fdf65dd6331831494dd616b30351c38e96e45921a27745cf98490458b90bb"
-dependencies = [
- "dirs 6.0.0",
-]
-
 [[package]]
 name = "shlex"
 version = "1.3.0"
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 67b7e26a8ae..064cd8b2f2c 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -177,7 +177,6 @@ rustc_version = "0.4"
 serde = { version = "^1" }
 serde_json = { version = "1" }
 semver = "1.0"
-shellexpand = "3.0"
 slatedb = "0.3"
 snafu = "0.8"
 strum = "0.26"
diff --git a/python/Cargo.lock b/python/Cargo.lock
index a7efcab31ec..3c1b7792254 100644
--- a/python/Cargo.lock
+++ b/python/Cargo.lock
@@ -4279,7 +4279,6 @@ dependencies = [
  "prost",
  "rand 0.9.2",
  "serde",
- "shellexpand",
  "snafu",
  "tempfile",
  "tokio",
@@ -5665,7 +5664,7 @@ source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "343d3bd7056eda839b03204e68deff7d1b13aba7af2b2fd16890697274262ee7"
 dependencies = [
  "heck",
- "itertools 0.14.0",
+ "itertools 0.11.0",
  "log",
  "multimap",
  "petgraph",
@@ -5684,7 +5683,7 @@ source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "27c6023962132f4b30eb4c172c91ce92d933da334c59c23cddee82358ddafb0b"
 dependencies = [
  "anyhow",
- "itertools 0.14.0",
+ "itertools 0.11.0",
  "proc-macro2",
  "quote",
  "syn 2.0.117",
@@ -6765,15 +6764,6 @@ dependencies = [
  "lazy_static",
 ]
 
-[[package]]
-name = "shellexpand"
-version = "3.1.1"
-source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "8b1fdf65dd6331831494dd616b30351c38e96e45921a27745cf98490458b90bb"
-dependencies = [
- "dirs",
-]
-
 [[package]]
 name = "shlex"
 version = "1.3.0"
diff --git a/rust/lance-io/Cargo.toml b/rust/lance-io/Cargo.toml
index 71e9dab1e9f..fd6e0345c2f 100644
--- a/rust/lance-io/Cargo.toml
+++ b/rust/lance-io/Cargo.toml
@@ -40,7 +40,6 @@ log.workspace = true
 pin-project.workspace = true
 prost.workspace = true
 serde.workspace = true
-shellexpand.workspace = true
 snafu.workspace = true
 tokio.workspace = true
 tracing.workspace = true
diff --git a/rust/lance-io/src/object_store.rs b/rust/lance-io/src/object_store.rs
index e908599c500..626055a2b11 100644
--- a/rust/lance-io/src/object_store.rs
+++ b/rust/lance-io/src/object_store.rs
@@ -26,7 +26,6 @@ use object_store::Error as ObjectStoreError;
 use object_store::{path::Path, ObjectMeta, ObjectStore as OSObjectStore};
 use providers::local::FileStoreProvider;
 use providers::memory::MemoryStoreProvider;
-use shellexpand::tilde;
 use snafu::location;
 use tokio::io::AsyncWriteExt;
 use url::Url;
@@ -337,7 +336,8 @@ pub fn uri_to_url(uri: &str) -> Result<Url> {
 }
 
 fn expand_path(str_path: impl AsRef<str>) -> Result<std::path::PathBuf> {
-    let expanded = tilde(str_path.as_ref()).to_string();
+    let str_path = str_path.as_ref();
+    let expanded = expand_tilde_path(str_path).unwrap_or_else(|| str_path.into());
 
     let mut expanded_path = path_abs::PathAbs::new(expanded)
         .unwrap()
@@ -353,6 +353,22 @@ fn expand_path(str_path: impl AsRef<str>) -> Result<std::path::PathBuf> {
     Ok(expanded_path)
 }
 
+fn expand_tilde_path(path: &str) -> Option<std::path::PathBuf> {
+    let home_dir = std::env::home_dir()?;
+    if path == "~" {
+        return Some(home_dir);
+    }
+    if let Some(stripped) = path.strip_prefix("~/") {
+        return Some(home_dir.join(stripped));
+    }
+    #[cfg(windows)]
+    if let Some(stripped) = path.strip_prefix("~\\") {
+        return Some(home_dir.join(stripped));
+    }
+
+    None
+}
+
 fn local_path_to_url(str_path: &str) -> Result<Url> {
     let expanded_path = expand_path(str_path)?;
 
@@ -967,8 +983,7 @@ mod tests {
 
     /// Write test content to file.
     fn write_to_file(path_str: &str, contents: &str) -> std::io::Result<()> {
-        let expanded = tilde(path_str).to_string();
-        let path = StdPath::new(&expanded);
+        let path = expand_path(path_str).map_err(std::io::Error::other)?;
         std::fs::create_dir_all(path.parent().unwrap())?;
         write(path, contents)
     }