diff --git a/youtube_dl/__init__.py b/youtube_dl/__init__.py
index 1cf3140a0..72141b983 100644
--- a/youtube_dl/__init__.py
+++ b/youtube_dl/__init__.py
@@ -283,12 +283,6 @@ def parse_retries(retries):
             'key': 'ExecAfterDownload',
             'exec_cmd': opts.exec_cmd,
         })
-    if opts.xattr_set_filesize:
-        try:
-            import xattr
-            xattr  # Confuse flake8
-        except ImportError:
-            parser.error('setting filesize xattr requested but python-xattr is not available')
     external_downloader_args = None
     if opts.external_downloader_args:
         external_downloader_args = compat_shlex_split(opts.external_downloader_args)
diff --git a/youtube_dl/downloader/http.py b/youtube_dl/downloader/http.py
index f8b69d186..11294d106 100644
--- a/youtube_dl/downloader/http.py
+++ b/youtube_dl/downloader/http.py
@@ -13,6 +13,9 @@
     encodeFilename,
     sanitize_open,
     sanitized_Request,
+    write_xattr,
+    XAttrMetadataError,
+    XAttrUnavailableError,
 )
 
 
@@ -179,9 +182,8 @@ def real_download(self, filename, info_dict):
 
                 if self.params.get('xattr_set_filesize', False) and data_len is not None:
                     try:
-                        import xattr
-                        xattr.setxattr(tmpfilename, 'user.ytdl.filesize', str(data_len))
-                    except(OSError, IOError, ImportError) as err:
+                        write_xattr(tmpfilename, 'user.ytdl.filesize', str(data_len))
+                    except (XAttrUnavailableError, XAttrMetadataError) as err:
                         self.report_error('unable to set filesize xattr: %s' % str(err))
 
             try: