diff --git a/src/components/views/elements/ImageView.tsx b/src/components/views/elements/ImageView.tsx
index 8032f07b6e..711a221994 100644
--- a/src/components/views/elements/ImageView.tsx
+++ b/src/components/views/elements/ImageView.tsx
@@ -8,9 +8,9 @@ SPDX-License-Identifier: AGPL-3.0-only OR GPL-3.0-only
 Please see LICENSE files in the repository root for full details.
 */
 
-import React, { createRef, CSSProperties } from "react";
+import React, { createRef, CSSProperties, useRef, useState } from "react";
 import FocusLock from "react-focus-lock";
-import { MatrixEvent } from "matrix-js-sdk/src/matrix";
+import { MatrixEvent, parseErrorResponse } from "matrix-js-sdk/src/matrix";
 
 import { _t } from "../../../languageHandler";
 import MemberAvatar from "../avatars/MemberAvatar";
@@ -30,6 +30,9 @@ import { KeyBindingAction } from "../../../accessibility/KeyboardShortcuts";
 import { getKeyBindingsManager } from "../../../KeyBindingsManager";
 import { presentableTextForFile } from "../../../utils/FileUtils";
 import AccessibleButton from "./AccessibleButton";
+import Modal from "../../../Modal";
+import ErrorDialog from "../dialogs/ErrorDialog";
+import { FileDownloader } from "../../../utils/FileDownloader";
 
 // Max scale to keep gaps around the image
 const MAX_SCALE = 0.95;
@@ -309,15 +312,6 @@ export default class ImageView extends React.Component<IProps, IState> {
         this.setZoomAndRotation(cur + 90);
     };
 
-    private onDownloadClick = (): void => {
-        const a = document.createElement("a");
-        a.href = this.props.src;
-        if (this.props.name) a.download = this.props.name;
-        a.target = "_blank";
-        a.rel = "noreferrer noopener";
-        a.click();
-    };
-
     private onOpenContextMenu = (): void => {
         this.setState({
             contextMenuDisplayed: true,
@@ -555,11 +549,7 @@ export default class ImageView extends React.Component<IProps, IState> {
                             title={_t("lightbox|rotate_right")}
                             onClick={this.onRotateClockwiseClick}
                         />
-                        <AccessibleButton
-                            className="mx_ImageView_button mx_ImageView_button_download"
-                            title={_t("action|download")}
-                            onClick={this.onDownloadClick}
-                        />
+                        <DownloadButton url={this.props.src} fileName={this.props.name} />
                         {contextMenuButton}
                         <AccessibleButton
                             className="mx_ImageView_button mx_ImageView_button_close"
@@ -591,3 +581,61 @@ export default class ImageView extends React.Component<IProps, IState> {
         );
     }
 }
+
+function DownloadButton({ url, fileName }: { url: string; fileName?: string }): JSX.Element {
+    const downloader = useRef(new FileDownloader()).current;
+    const [loading, setLoading] = useState(false);
+    const blobRef = useRef<Blob>();
+
+    function showError(e: unknown): void {
+        Modal.createDialog(ErrorDialog, {
+            title: _t("timeline|download_failed"),
+            description: (
+                <>
+                    <div>{_t("timeline|download_failed_description")}</div>
+                    <div>{e instanceof Error ? e.toString() : ""}</div>
+                </>
+            ),
+        });
+        setLoading(false);
+    }
+
+    const onDownloadClick = async (): Promise<void> => {
+        try {
+            if (loading) return;
+            setLoading(true);
+
+            if (blobRef.current) {
+                // Cheat and trigger a download, again.
+                return downloadBlob(blobRef.current);
+            }
+
+            const res = await fetch(url);
+            if (!res.ok) {
+                throw parseErrorResponse(res, await res.text());
+            }
+            const blob = await res.blob();
+            blobRef.current = blob;
+            await downloadBlob(blob);
+        } catch (e) {
+            showError(e);
+        }
+    };
+
+    async function downloadBlob(blob: Blob): Promise<void> {
+        await downloader.download({
+            blob,
+            name: fileName ?? _t("common|image"),
+        });
+        setLoading(false);
+    }
+
+    return (
+        <AccessibleButton
+            className="mx_ImageView_button mx_ImageView_button_download"
+            title={loading ? _t("timeline|download_action_downloading") : _t("action|download")}
+            onClick={onDownloadClick}
+            disabled={loading}
+        />
+    );
+}
diff --git a/test/unit-tests/components/views/elements/ImageView-test.tsx b/test/unit-tests/components/views/elements/ImageView-test.tsx
index 48a312ed3a..4a23d847cb 100644
--- a/test/unit-tests/components/views/elements/ImageView-test.tsx
+++ b/test/unit-tests/components/views/elements/ImageView-test.tsx
@@ -7,13 +7,57 @@
  */
 
 import React from "react";
-import { render } from "jest-matrix-react";
+import { mocked } from "jest-mock";
+import { render, fireEvent, waitFor } from "jest-matrix-react";
+import fetchMock from "fetch-mock-jest";
 
 import ImageView from "../../../../../src/components/views/elements/ImageView";
+import { FileDownloader } from "../../../../../src/utils/FileDownloader";
+import Modal from "../../../../../src/Modal";
+import ErrorDialog from "../../../../../src/components/views/dialogs/ErrorDialog";
+
+jest.mock("../../../../../src/utils/FileDownloader");
 
 describe("<ImageView />", () => {
+    beforeEach(() => {
+        jest.resetAllMocks();
+        fetchMock.reset();
+    });
+
     it("renders correctly", () => {
         const { container } = render(<ImageView src="https://example.com/image.png" onFinished={jest.fn()} />);
         expect(container).toMatchSnapshot();
     });
+
+    it("should download on click", async () => {
+        fetchMock.get("https://example.com/image.png", "TESTFILE");
+        const { getByRole } = render(
+            <ImageView src="https://example.com/image.png" name="filename.png" onFinished={jest.fn()} />,
+        );
+        fireEvent.click(getByRole("button", { name: "Download" }));
+        await waitFor(() =>
+            expect(mocked(FileDownloader).mock.instances[0].download).toHaveBeenCalledWith({
+                blob: expect.anything(),
+                name: "filename.png",
+            }),
+        );
+        expect(fetchMock).toHaveFetched("https://example.com/image.png");
+    });
+
+    it("should handle download errors", async () => {
+        const modalSpy = jest.spyOn(Modal, "createDialog");
+        fetchMock.get("https://example.com/image.png", { status: 500 });
+        const { getByRole } = render(
+            <ImageView src="https://example.com/image.png" name="filename.png" onFinished={jest.fn()} />,
+        );
+        fireEvent.click(getByRole("button", { name: "Download" }));
+        await waitFor(() =>
+            expect(modalSpy).toHaveBeenCalledWith(
+                ErrorDialog,
+                expect.objectContaining({
+                    title: "Download failed",
+                }),
+            ),
+        );
+    });
 });