diff --git a/kolibri/core/content/management/commands/importcontent.py b/kolibri/core/content/management/commands/importcontent.py
index 23c4d230c92..c10e8ad2776 100644
--- a/kolibri/core/content/management/commands/importcontent.py
+++ b/kolibri/core/content/management/commands/importcontent.py
@@ -22,6 +22,8 @@
 from kolibri.core.tasks.management.commands.base import AsyncCommand
 from kolibri.core.tasks.utils import get_current_job
 from kolibri.utils import conf
+from kolibri.utils.options import FD_PER_THREAD
+from kolibri.utils.system import get_fd_limit
 from kolibri.utils.system import get_free_space
 
 # constants to specify the transfer method to be used
@@ -300,7 +302,38 @@ def _transfer(  # noqa: max-complexity=16
             if method == DOWNLOAD_METHOD:
                 session = requests.Session()
 
-            with concurrent.futures.ThreadPoolExecutor(max_workers=10) as executor:
+            executor = (
+                concurrent.futures.ProcessPoolExecutor
+                if conf.OPTIONS["Tasks"]["USE_WORKER_MULTIPROCESSING"]
+                else concurrent.futures.ThreadPoolExecutor
+            )
+
+            max_workers = 10
+
+            if not conf.OPTIONS["Tasks"]["USE_WORKER_MULTIPROCESSING"]:
+                # If we're not using multiprocessing for workers, we may need
+                # to limit the number of workers depending on the number of allowed
+                # file descriptors.
+                # This is a heuristic method, where we know there can be issues if
+                # the max number of file descriptors for a process is 256, and we use 10
+                # workers, with potentially 4 concurrent tasks downloading files.
+                # The number of concurrent tasks that might be downloading files is determined
+                # by the number of regular workers running in the task runner
+                # (although the high priority task queue could also be running a channel database download).
+                server_reserved_fd_count = (
+                    FD_PER_THREAD * conf.OPTIONS["Server"]["CHERRYPY_THREAD_POOL"]
+                )
+                max_descriptors_per_download_task = (
+                    get_fd_limit() - server_reserved_fd_count
+                ) / conf.OPTIONS["Tasks"]["REGULAR_PRIORITY_WORKERS"]
+                # Each download task only needs to have a maximum of two open file descriptors at once:
+                # The temporary download file that the file is streamed to initially, and then
+                # the actual destination file that it is moved to. To add tolerance, we divide
+                # the number of file descriptors that could be allocated to this task by four,
+                # which should give us leeway in case of unforeseen descriptor use during the process.
+                max_workers = min(1, max_descriptors_per_download_task // 4)
+
+            with executor(max_workers=max_workers) as executor:
                 batch_size = 100
                 # ThreadPoolExecutor allows us to download files concurrently,
                 # greatly reducing download time in most cases. However, loading
diff --git a/kolibri/utils/options.py b/kolibri/utils/options.py
index 9154c5fd21c..660778edb93 100644
--- a/kolibri/utils/options.py
+++ b/kolibri/utils/options.py
@@ -47,6 +47,10 @@
     )
 )
 
+# Reserve some file descriptors for file operations happening in asynchronous tasks
+# when the server is running with threaded task runners.
+MIN_RESERVED_FD = 64
+
 
 def calculate_thread_pool():
     """
@@ -79,8 +83,9 @@ def calculate_thread_pool():
         pool_size = MAX_POOL
 
     # ensure (number of threads) x (open file descriptors) < (fd limit)
-    max_threads = get_fd_limit() // FD_PER_THREAD
-    return min(pool_size, max_threads)
+    max_threads = (get_fd_limit() - MIN_RESERVED_FD) // FD_PER_THREAD
+    # Ensure that the number of threads never goes below 1
+    return max(1, min(pool_size, max_threads))
 
 
 ALL_LANGUAGES = "kolibri-all"