diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 90cfde9d0..0a0b272df 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 
 - Convert setup.py to pyproject.toml ([#920](https://github.com/Open-EO/openeo-python-client/issues/920))
 - Make `_DerivedFrom._from_url` more resilient against unresolvable/unparsable `derived_from` links ([#928](https://github.com/Open-EO/openeo-python-client/issues/928), eu-cdse/openeo-cdse-infra#1338)
+- `download_url()`: favor explicit HEAD status check over unhelpful auto-check ([#939](https://github.com/Open-EO/openeo-python-client/issues/939))
 
 ### Removed
 
diff --git a/openeo/rest/_connection.py b/openeo/rest/_connection.py
index 42167ba74..ce521e47e 100644
--- a/openeo/rest/_connection.py
+++ b/openeo/rest/_connection.py
@@ -305,7 +305,7 @@ def download_url(
         chunk_size: int = DEFAULT_DOWNLOAD_CHUNK_SIZE,
         range_size: int = DEFAULT_DOWNLOAD_RANGE_SIZE,
     ) -> None:
-        head = self.head(url, stream=True)
+        head = self.head(url, stream=True, check_error=False)
         if head.ok and head.headers.get("Accept-Ranges") == "bytes" and "Content-Length" in head.headers:
             file_size = int(head.headers["Content-Length"])
             self._download_ranged(