diff --git a/waterbutler/providers/gitlab/provider.py b/waterbutler/providers/gitlab/provider.py
index 28b488cd8..d72281aa5 100644
--- a/waterbutler/providers/gitlab/provider.py
+++ b/waterbutler/providers/gitlab/provider.py
@@ -224,6 +224,9 @@ async def download(self, path: GitLabPath, **kwargs):  # type: ignore
 
         logger.debug('download-headers:: {}'.format([(x, resp.headers[x]) for x in resp.headers]))
 
+        logger.error('gitlab-size-headers: content-length:({}) '
+                     'x-gitlab-size:({})'.format(resp.headers.get('Content-Length'),
+                                                 resp.headers.get('X-Gitlab-Size')))
         # get size from X-Gitlab-Size header, since some responses don't set Content-Length
         return streams.ResponseStreamReader(resp, size=int(resp.headers['X-Gitlab-Size']))
 
diff --git a/waterbutler/server/api/v1/provider/metadata.py b/waterbutler/server/api/v1/provider/metadata.py
index a7d09d52b..66e00e192 100644
--- a/waterbutler/server/api/v1/provider/metadata.py
+++ b/waterbutler/server/api/v1/provider/metadata.py
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
 
 import pytz
 from dateutil.parser import parse as datetime_parser
+from tornado import httputil
 
 from waterbutler.server import utils
 from waterbutler.core import mime_types
@@ -103,7 +104,16 @@ async def download_file(self):
         if ext in mime_types:
             self.set_header('Content-Type', mime_types[ext])
 
-        await self.write_stream(stream)
+        try:
+            await self.write_stream(stream)
+        except httputil.HTTPOutputError as exc:
+            logger.error('Caught HTTPOutputError, checking content-length sizes')
+            logger.error(
+                '*** stream.size:({}) content-length:({})'.format(
+                    stream.size, self._headers.get('Content-Length')
+                )
+            )
+            raise exc
 
         if getattr(stream, 'partial', False) and isinstance(stream, ResponseStreamReader):
             await stream.response.release()