diff --git a/youtube_dl/downloader/http.py b/youtube_dl/downloader/http.py
index e14ddce58d5..6ef26548d23 100644
--- a/youtube_dl/downloader/http.py
+++ b/youtube_dl/downloader/http.py
@@ -238,9 +238,11 @@ def retry(e):
                 except socket.timeout as e:
                     retry(e)
                 except socket.error as e:
-                    if e.errno not in (errno.ECONNRESET, errno.ETIMEDOUT):
-                        raise
-                    retry(e)
+                    # SSLError on python 2 (inherits socket.error) may have
+                    # no errno set but this error message
+                    if e.errno in (errno.ECONNRESET, errno.ETIMEDOUT) or getattr(e, 'message') == 'The read operation timed out':
+                        retry(e)
+                    raise
 
                 byte_counter += len(data_block)