diff --git a/CHANGELOG b/CHANGELOG
index 737ffc4a5f..c03db1f93c 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG
+++ b/CHANGELOG
@@ -24,6 +24,8 @@ git-annex (6.20180113) UNRELEASED; urgency=medium
     the json output.
   * Remove temporary code added in 6.20160619 to prime the mergedrefs
     log.
+  * importfeed: Fix a failure when downloading with youtube-dl
+    and the destination subdirectory does not exist yet.
 
  -- Joey Hess <id@joeyh.name>  Wed, 24 Jan 2018 20:42:55 -0400
 
diff --git a/Command/AddUrl.hs b/Command/AddUrl.hs
index dfdbf5b5a1..0e7201f123 100644
--- a/Command/AddUrl.hs
+++ b/Command/AddUrl.hs
@@ -370,7 +370,9 @@ addWorkTree u url file key mtmp = case mtmp of
 	Nothing -> go
 	Just tmp -> do
 		-- Move to final location for large file check.
-		pruneTmpWorkDirBefore tmp (\_ -> liftIO $ renameFile tmp file)
+		pruneTmpWorkDirBefore tmp $ \_ -> liftIO $ do
+			createDirectoryIfMissing True (takeDirectory file)
+			renameFile tmp file
 		largematcher <- largeFilesMatcher
 		large <- checkFileMatcher largematcher file
 		if large