diff --git a/app/services/activitypub/process_status_update_service.rb b/app/services/activitypub/process_status_update_service.rb
index 9fd835d777..fad19f87fd 100644
--- a/app/services/activitypub/process_status_update_service.rb
+++ b/app/services/activitypub/process_status_update_service.rb
@@ -93,7 +93,13 @@ class ActivityPub::ProcessStatusUpdateService < BaseService
 
         next if unsupported_media_type?(media_attachment_parser.file_content_type) || skip_download?
 
-        RedownloadMediaWorker.perform_async(media_attachment.id) if media_attachment.remote_url_previously_changed? || media_attachment.thumbnail_remote_url_previously_changed?
+        begin
+          media_attachment.download_file! if media_attachment.remote_url_previously_changed?
+          media_attachment.download_thumbnail! if media_attachment.thumbnail_remote_url_previously_changed?
+          media_attachment.save
+        rescue Mastodon::UnexpectedResponseError, HTTP::TimeoutError, HTTP::ConnectionError, OpenSSL::SSL::SSLError
+          RedownloadMediaWorker.perform_in(rand(30..600).seconds, media_attachment.id)
+        end
       rescue Addressable::URI::InvalidURIError => e
         Rails.logger.debug "Invalid URL in attachment: #{e}"
       end
diff --git a/spec/services/activitypub/process_status_update_service_spec.rb b/spec/services/activitypub/process_status_update_service_spec.rb
index 481572742b..750369d57f 100644
--- a/spec/services/activitypub/process_status_update_service_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/services/activitypub/process_status_update_service_spec.rb
@@ -331,7 +331,7 @@ RSpec.describe ActivityPub::ProcessStatusUpdateService, type: :service do
 
     context 'originally without media attachments' do
       before do
-        allow(RedownloadMediaWorker).to receive(:perform_async)
+        stub_request(:get, 'https://example.com/foo.png').to_return(body: attachment_fixture('emojo.png'))
         subject.call(status, json)
       end
 
@@ -355,8 +355,8 @@ RSpec.describe ActivityPub::ProcessStatusUpdateService, type: :service do
         expect(media_attachment.remote_url).to eq 'https://example.com/foo.png'
       end
 
-      it 'queues download of media attachments' do
-        expect(RedownloadMediaWorker).to have_received(:perform_async)
+      it 'fetches the attachment' do
+        expect(a_request(:get, 'https://example.com/foo.png')).to have_been_made
       end
 
       it 'records media change in edit' do