diff --git a/lib/url.c b/lib/url.c
index 1603b30727..9d60478043 100644
--- a/lib/url.c
+++ b/lib/url.c
@@ -4110,7 +4110,7 @@ CURLcode Curl_connect(struct Curl_easy *data,
   /* init the single-transfer specific data */
   Curl_free_request_state(data);
   memset(&data->req, 0, sizeof(struct SingleRequest));
-  data->req.maxdownload = -1;
+  data->req.size = data->req.maxdownload = -1;
 
   /* call the stuff that needs to be called */
   result = create_conn(data, &conn, asyncp);