diff --git a/src/flash/core/data/utils.py b/src/flash/core/data/utils.py
index e142615d74..8a6827a145 100644
--- a/src/flash/core/data/utils.py
+++ b/src/flash/core/data/utils.py
@@ -59,7 +59,7 @@
 }
 
 
-def download_data(url: str, path: str = "data/", verbose: bool = False) -> None:
+def download_data(url: str, path: str = "data/", verbose: bool = False, chunk_size: int = 1024) -> None:
     """Download file with progressbar.
 
     # Code adapted from: https://gist.github.com/ruxi/5d6803c116ec1130d484a4ab8c00c603
@@ -78,39 +78,42 @@ def download_data(url: str, path: str = "data/", verbose: bool = False) -> None:
         [...]
 
     """
+    local_filename = os.path.join(path, url.split("/")[-1])
+    if os.path.exists(local_filename):
+        if verbose:
+            print(f"local file already exists: '{local_filename}'")
+        return
+
+    os.makedirs(path, exist_ok=True)
     # Disable warning about making an insecure request
     urllib3.disable_warnings(urllib3.exceptions.InsecureRequestWarning)
 
-    if not os.path.exists(path):
-        os.makedirs(path)
-    local_filename = os.path.join(path, url.split("/")[-1])
     r = requests.get(url, stream=True, verify=False)
     file_size = int(r.headers["Content-Length"]) if "Content-Length" in r.headers else 0
-    chunk_size = 1024
     num_bars = int(file_size / chunk_size)
     if verbose:
-        print({"file_size": file_size})
-        print({"num_bars": num_bars})
-
-    if not os.path.exists(local_filename):
-        with open(local_filename, "wb") as fp:
-            for chunk in tq(
-                r.iter_content(chunk_size=chunk_size),
-                total=num_bars,
-                unit="KB",
-                desc=local_filename,
-                leave=True,  # progressbar stays
-            ):
-                fp.write(chunk)  # type: ignore
-
-    def extract_tarfile(file_path: str, extract_path: str, mode: str):
-        if os.path.exists(file_path):
-            with tarfile.open(file_path, mode=mode) as tar_ref:
-                for member in tar_ref.getmembers():
-                    try:
-                        tar_ref.extract(member, path=extract_path, set_attrs=False)
-                    except PermissionError:
-                        raise PermissionError(f"Could not extract tar file {file_path}")
+        print(f"file size: {file_size}")
+        print(f"num bars: {num_bars}")
+
+    with open(local_filename, "wb") as fp:
+        for chunk in tq(
+            r.iter_content(chunk_size=chunk_size),
+            total=num_bars,
+            unit="KB",
+            desc=local_filename,
+            leave=True,  # progressbar stays
+        ):
+            fp.write(chunk)  # type: ignore
+
+    def extract_tarfile(file_path: str, extract_path: str, mode: str) -> None:
+        if not os.path.exists(file_path):
+            return
+        with tarfile.open(file_path, mode=mode) as tar_ref:
+            for member in tar_ref.getmembers():
+                try:
+                    tar_ref.extract(member, path=extract_path, set_attrs=False)
+                except PermissionError:
+                    raise PermissionError(f"Could not extract tar file {file_path}")
 
     if ".zip" in local_filename:
         if os.path.exists(local_filename):