diff --git a/plugins/discourse-narrative-bot/lib/discourse_narrative_bot/certificate_generator.rb b/plugins/discourse-narrative-bot/lib/discourse_narrative_bot/certificate_generator.rb
index a66dcba191e..a158521149f 100644
--- a/plugins/discourse-narrative-bot/lib/discourse_narrative_bot/certificate_generator.rb
+++ b/plugins/discourse-narrative-bot/lib/discourse_narrative_bot/certificate_generator.rb
@@ -93,7 +93,12 @@ module DiscourseNarrativeBot
     end
 
     def fetch_image(url)
-      URI(url).open('rb', redirect: true, allow_redirections: :all).read
+      FileHelper.download(
+        url.to_s,
+        max_file_size: SiteSetting.max_image_size_kb.kilobytes,
+        tmp_file_name: 'narrative-bot-logo',
+        follow_redirect: true
+      )&.read
     rescue OpenURI::HTTPError
       # Ignore if fetching image returns a non 200 response
     end
diff --git a/plugins/discourse-narrative-bot/plugin.rb b/plugins/discourse-narrative-bot/plugin.rb
index 31949915f4b..54e97a05e7a 100644
--- a/plugins/discourse-narrative-bot/plugin.rb
+++ b/plugins/discourse-narrative-bot/plugin.rb
@@ -110,11 +110,11 @@ after_initialize do
       def fetch_avatar_url(user)
         avatar_url = UrlHelper.absolute(Discourse.base_uri + user.avatar_template.gsub('{size}', '250'))
         FileHelper.download(
-          avatar_url,
+          avatar_url.to_s,
           max_file_size: SiteSetting.max_image_size_kb.kilobytes,
           tmp_file_name: 'narrative-bot-avatar',
           follow_redirect: true
-        ).read
+        )&.read
       rescue OpenURI::HTTPError
         # Ignore if fetching image returns a non 200 response
       end