diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/plugins/PluginManager.java b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/plugins/PluginManager.java
index 44b7078e9af..858a6ca1843 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/plugins/PluginManager.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/plugins/PluginManager.java
@@ -153,7 +153,7 @@ public class PluginManager {
             }
         }
 
-        if (!downloaded) {
+        if (!downloaded && url == null) {
             // We try all possible locations
             for (URL url : pluginHandle.urls()) {
                 terminal.println("Trying %s ...", url.toExternalForm());
diff --git a/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/plugins/PluginManagerIT.java b/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/plugins/PluginManagerIT.java
index a96187e614b..15e91c7bd91 100644
--- a/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/plugins/PluginManagerIT.java
+++ b/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/plugins/PluginManagerIT.java
@@ -536,6 +536,9 @@ public class PluginManagerIT extends ESIntegTestCase {
             // IO_ERROR because there is no real file delivered...
             assertStatus(String.format(Locale.ROOT, "install foo --url https://user:pass@localhost:%s/foo.zip --verbose --timeout 1s", port), ExitStatus.IO_ERROR);
 
+            // ensure that we did not try any other data source like download.elastic.co, in case we specified our own local URL
+            assertThat(terminal.getTerminalOutput(), not(hasItem(containsString("download.elastic.co"))));
+
             assertThat(requests, hasSize(1));
             String msg = String.format(Locale.ROOT, "Request header did not contain Authorization header, terminal output was: %s", terminal.getTerminalOutput());
             assertThat(msg, requests.get(0).headers().contains("Authorization"), is(true));