diff --git a/src/wp-includes/class-wp-http.php b/src/wp-includes/class-wp-http.php
index 2e3a9dec22639..477424df78905 100644
--- a/src/wp-includes/class-wp-http.php
+++ b/src/wp-includes/class-wp-http.php
@@ -310,6 +310,11 @@ public function request( $url, $args = array() ) {
 		if ( $parsed_args['stream'] ) {
 			if ( empty( $parsed_args['filename'] ) ) {
 				$parsed_args['filename'] = get_temp_dir() . basename( $url );
+
+				// If that file exists, fallback to a temporary file.
+				if ( file_exists( $parsed_args['filename'] ) ) {
+					$parsed_args['filename'] = wp_tempnam( basename( $url ) );
+				}
 			}
 
 			// Force some settings if we are streaming to a file and check for existence