diff --git a/mediaapi/fileutils/fileutils.go b/mediaapi/fileutils/fileutils.go
index df19eee4a..7309cb882 100644
--- a/mediaapi/fileutils/fileutils.go
+++ b/mediaapi/fileutils/fileutils.go
@@ -109,7 +109,7 @@ func RemoveDir(dir types.Path, logger *log.Entry) {
 // WriteTempFile writes to a new temporary file.
 // The file is deleted if there was an error while writing.
 func WriteTempFile(
-	ctx context.Context, reqReader io.Reader, maxFileSizeBytes config.FileSizeBytes, absBasePath config.Path,
+	ctx context.Context, reqReader io.Reader, absBasePath config.Path,
 ) (hash types.Base64Hash, size types.FileSizeBytes, path types.Path, err error) {
 	size = -1
 	logger := util.GetLogger(ctx)
@@ -124,18 +124,11 @@ func WriteTempFile(
 		}
 	}()
 
-	// If the max_file_size_bytes configuration option is set to a positive
-	// number then limit the upload to that size. Otherwise, just read the
-	// whole file.
-	limitedReader := reqReader
-	if maxFileSizeBytes > 0 {
-		limitedReader = io.LimitReader(reqReader, int64(maxFileSizeBytes))
-	}
 	// Hash the file data. The hash will be returned. The hash is useful as a
 	// method of deduplicating files to save storage, as well as a way to conduct
 	// integrity checks on the file data in the repository.
 	hasher := sha256.New()
-	teeReader := io.TeeReader(limitedReader, hasher)
+	teeReader := io.TeeReader(reqReader, hasher)
 	bytesWritten, err := io.Copy(tmpFileWriter, teeReader)
 	if err != nil && err != io.EOF {
 		RemoveDir(tmpDir, logger)
diff --git a/mediaapi/routing/download.go b/mediaapi/routing/download.go
index 19a04b3c7..828e0b71f 100644
--- a/mediaapi/routing/download.go
+++ b/mediaapi/routing/download.go
@@ -15,7 +15,6 @@
 package routing
 
 import (
-	"bytes"
 	"context"
 	"encoding/json"
 	"fmt"
@@ -675,34 +674,41 @@ func (r *downloadRequest) fetchRemoteFileAndStoreMetadata(
 	return nil
 }
 
-func (r *downloadRequest) GetContentLengthAndReader(contentLengthHeader string, body *io.ReadCloser) (int64, io.Reader, error) {
-	var reader io.Reader
+func (r *downloadRequest) GetContentLengthAndReader(contentLengthHeader string, body *io.ReadCloser, maxFileSizeBytes config.FileSizeBytes) (int64, io.Reader, error) {
+	reader := *body
 	var contentLength int64
 
 	if contentLengthHeader != "" {
+		// A Content-Length header is provided. Let's try to parse it.
 		parsedLength, parseErr := strconv.ParseInt(contentLengthHeader, 10, 64)
-
 		if parseErr != nil {
 			r.Logger.WithError(parseErr).Warn("Failed to parse content length")
 			return 0, nil, errors.Wrap(parseErr, "invalid response from remote server")
 		}
-
-		reader = *body
-		contentLength = parsedLength
-	} else {
-		// Content-Length header is missing, we need to read the whole body to get its length
-		bodyBytes, readAllErr := ioutil.ReadAll(*body)
-		if readAllErr != nil {
-			r.Logger.WithError(readAllErr).Warn("Could not read response body from remote server")
-			return 0, nil, errors.Wrap(readAllErr, "invalid response from remote server")
+		if parsedLength > int64(maxFileSizeBytes) {
+			return 0, nil, fmt.Errorf(
+				"remote file size (%d bytes) exceeds locally configured max media size (%d bytes)",
+				parsedLength, maxFileSizeBytes,
+			)
 		}
 
-		contentLength = int64(len(bodyBytes))
-		reader = ioutil.NopCloser(bytes.NewBuffer(bodyBytes))
+		// We successfully parsed the Content-Length, so we'll return a limited
+		// reader that restricts us to reading only up to this size.
+		reader = ioutil.NopCloser(io.LimitReader(*body, parsedLength))
+		contentLength = parsedLength
+	} else {
+		// Content-Length header is missing. If we have a maximum file size
+		// configured then we'll just make sure that the reader is limited to
+		// that size. We'll return a zero content length, but that's OK, since
+		// ultimately it will get rewritten later when the temp file is written
+		// to disk.
+		if maxFileSizeBytes > 0 {
+			reader = ioutil.NopCloser(io.LimitReader(*body, int64(maxFileSizeBytes)))
+		}
+		contentLength = 0
 	}
 
 	return contentLength, reader, nil
-
 }
 
 func (r *downloadRequest) fetchRemoteFile(
@@ -724,7 +730,9 @@ func (r *downloadRequest) fetchRemoteFile(
 	}
 	defer resp.Body.Close() // nolint: errcheck
 
-	contentLength, reader, parseErr := r.GetContentLengthAndReader(resp.Header.Get("Content-Length"), &resp.Body)
+	// The reader returned here will be limited either by the Content-Length
+	// and/or the configured maximum media size.
+	contentLength, reader, parseErr := r.GetContentLengthAndReader(resp.Header.Get("Content-Length"), &resp.Body, maxFileSizeBytes)
 	if parseErr != nil {
 		return "", false, parseErr
 	}
@@ -760,7 +768,7 @@ func (r *downloadRequest) fetchRemoteFile(
 	// method of deduplicating files to save storage, as well as a way to conduct
 	// integrity checks on the file data in the repository.
 	// Data is truncated to maxFileSizeBytes. Content-Length was reported as 0 < Content-Length <= maxFileSizeBytes so this is OK.
-	hash, bytesWritten, tmpDir, err := fileutils.WriteTempFile(ctx, reader, maxFileSizeBytes, absBasePath)
+	hash, bytesWritten, tmpDir, err := fileutils.WriteTempFile(ctx, reader, absBasePath)
 	if err != nil {
 		r.Logger.WithError(err).WithFields(log.Fields{
 			"MaxFileSizeBytes": maxFileSizeBytes,
diff --git a/mediaapi/routing/upload.go b/mediaapi/routing/upload.go
index 1dcf4e17b..2c5753745 100644
--- a/mediaapi/routing/upload.go
+++ b/mediaapi/routing/upload.go
@@ -147,7 +147,7 @@ func (r *uploadRequest) doUpload(
 	//   r.storeFileAndMetadata(ctx, tmpDir, ...)
 	// before you return from doUpload else we will leak a temp file. We could make this nicer with a `WithTransaction` style of
 	// nested function to guarantee either storage or cleanup.
-	hash, bytesWritten, tmpDir, err := fileutils.WriteTempFile(ctx, reqReader, *cfg.MaxFileSizeBytes, cfg.AbsBasePath)
+	hash, bytesWritten, tmpDir, err := fileutils.WriteTempFile(ctx, reqReader, cfg.AbsBasePath)
 	if err != nil {
 		r.Logger.WithError(err).WithFields(log.Fields{
 			"MaxFileSizeBytes": *cfg.MaxFileSizeBytes,