diff --git a/cmake/ace_group.cmake b/cmake/ace_group.cmake
index 6105b1b9733..77f0c55a65d 100644
--- a/cmake/ace_group.cmake
+++ b/cmake/ace_group.cmake
@@ -12,13 +12,7 @@ include("${CMAKE_CURRENT_LIST_DIR}/import_common.cmake")
 
 _opendds_group(ACE DEFAULT_REQUIRED ACE::ACE)
 
-if(_OPENDDS_ACE_MPC_NAME_IS_ACE_TARGET)
-  set(_mpc_name ACE-target)
-else()
-  set(_mpc_name ACE)
-endif()
 _opendds_group_lib(ACE
-  MPC_NAME "${_mpc_name}"
   DEPENDS Threads::Threads
 )
 _opendds_group_lib(XML_Utils
diff --git a/cmake/build_ace_tao.cmake b/cmake/build_ace_tao.cmake
index c011484d426..276dfe0cc6a 100644
--- a/cmake/build_ace_tao.cmake
+++ b/cmake/build_ace_tao.cmake
@@ -1,9 +1,5 @@
 include(ExternalProject)
 
-if(_OPENDDS_MPC_TYPE STREQUAL gnuace)
-  set(_OPENDDS_TAO_MPC_NAME_IS_TAO_TARGET TRUE CACHE INTERNAL "")
-endif()
-
 if(OPENDDS_JUST_BUILD_HOST_TOOLS)
   set(ws "${OPENDDS_BUILD_DIR}/host-tools.mwc")
   file(WRITE "${ws}"
diff --git a/cmake/get_ace_tao.cmake b/cmake/get_ace_tao.cmake
index fb13d58d26d..54b3b9b187e 100644
--- a/cmake/get_ace_tao.cmake
+++ b/cmake/get_ace_tao.cmake
@@ -133,9 +133,6 @@ if(EXISTS "${OPENDDS_ACE_TAO_SRC}/ace/Version.h")
   set(OPENDDS_ACE "${OPENDDS_ACE_TAO_SRC}" CACHE INTERNAL "")
 elseif(EXISTS "${OPENDDS_ACE_TAO_SRC}/ACE/ace/Version.h")
   set(OPENDDS_ACE "${OPENDDS_ACE_TAO_SRC}/ACE" CACHE INTERNAL "")
-  if(_OPENDDS_MPC_TYPE STREQUAL gnuace)
-    set(_OPENDDS_ACE_MPC_NAME_IS_ACE_TARGET TRUE CACHE INTERNAL "")
-  endif()
 else()
   message(FATAL_ERROR "Can't find ace/Version.h in ${OPENDDS_ACE}")
 endif()
diff --git a/cmake/import_common.cmake b/cmake/import_common.cmake
index 41588915b1c..453bc880399 100644
--- a/cmake/import_common.cmake
+++ b/cmake/import_common.cmake
@@ -104,11 +104,20 @@ endfunction()
 function(_opendds_find_in_mpc_projects found_var path_var mpc_projects mpc_name config)
   string(JSON mpc_project ERROR_VARIABLE err GET "${mpc_projects}" "${mpc_name}")
   if(NOT mpc_project)
-    set(${found_var} FALSE CACHE INTERNAL "" FORCE)
-    if(debug)
-      message(STATUS "lib ${target} (${mpc_name}) not in MPC projects")
+    # The ACE and TAO libraries targets from MPC might be called ACE-target and
+    # TAO-target depending on if they're in directories of the same name. It
+    # should be trivial to predict this, but the path logic for this in MPC
+    # seems buggy and might not prepend -target when OPENDDS_ACE_TAO_SRC is
+    # outside of the build directory, so we're just going to check both for all
+    # targets.
+    string(JSON mpc_project ERROR_VARIABLE err GET "${mpc_projects}" "${mpc_name}-target")
+    if(NOT mpc_project)
+      set(${found_var} FALSE CACHE INTERNAL "" FORCE)
+      if(debug)
+        message(STATUS "lib ${target} (${mpc_name} or ${mpc_name}-target) not in MPC projects")
+      endif()
+      return()
     endif()
-    return()
   endif()
   string(JSON configs ERROR_VARIABLE err GET "${mpc_project}" "configs")
   if(config AND configs)
diff --git a/cmake/tao_group.cmake b/cmake/tao_group.cmake
index 7260988bd30..4d9b0494919 100644
--- a/cmake/tao_group.cmake
+++ b/cmake/tao_group.cmake
@@ -12,13 +12,7 @@ include("${CMAKE_CURRENT_LIST_DIR}/import_common.cmake")
 
 _opendds_group(TAO DEFAULT_REQUIRED TAO::TAO TAO::tao_idl)
 
-if(_OPENDDS_TAO_MPC_NAME_IS_TAO_TARGET)
-  set(_mpc_name TAO-target)
-else()
-  set(_mpc_name TAO)
-endif()
 _opendds_group_lib(TAO
-  MPC_NAME "${_mpc_name}"
   DEPENDS ACE::ACE
 )
 _opendds_group_lib(IDL_FE
diff --git a/docs/news.d/cmake-ace-tao-src.rst b/docs/news.d/cmake-ace-tao-src.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..6ac106d57e9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/news.d/cmake-ace-tao-src.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+.. news-prs: 4604
+
+.. news-start-section: Platform Support and Dependencies
+.. news-start-section: Building with CMake
+- Fixed CMake saying it's missing the ACE library when using :cmake:var:`OPENDDS_ACE_TAO_SRC` with an ACE/TAO outside of the build directory.
+.. news-end-section
+.. news-end-section