diff --git a/tests/PHPUnit/Fixtures/SqlDump.php b/tests/PHPUnit/Fixtures/SqlDump.php
index 589ffd1e0f7..3a732cd0c0a 100644
--- a/tests/PHPUnit/Fixtures/SqlDump.php
+++ b/tests/PHPUnit/Fixtures/SqlDump.php
@@ -36,20 +36,12 @@ public function setUp()
             $dumpPath = $this->dumpUrl;
         } else {
             $dumpPath = PIWIK_INCLUDE_PATH . '/tmp/logdump.sql.gz';
-            $bufferSize = 1024 * 1024;
+            $bytesRead = $this->downloadDumpInPath($dumpPath);
 
-            $dump = fopen($this->dumpUrl, 'rb');
-            $outfile = fopen($dumpPath, 'wb');
-            $bytesRead = 0;
-            while (!feof($dump)) {
-                fwrite($outfile, fread($dump, $bufferSize), $bufferSize);
-                $bytesRead += $bufferSize;
-            }
-            fclose($dump);
-            fclose($outfile);
-
-            if ($bytesRead <= 40 * 1024 * 1024) { // sanity check
-                throw new Exception("Could not download sql dump!");
+            // sanity check
+            if ($bytesRead <= 40 * 1024 * 1024) {
+                $str = "Could not download sql dump! You can manually download %s into %s";
+                throw new Exception(sprintf($str, $this->dumpUrl, $dumpPath));
             }
         }
 
@@ -93,4 +85,24 @@ public function tearDown()
     {
         // empty
     }
+
+    /**
+     * @param $dumpPath
+     * @return int
+     */
+    protected function downloadDumpInPath($dumpPath)
+    {
+        $bufferSize = 1024 * 1024;
+
+        $dump = fopen($this->dumpUrl, 'rb');
+        $outfile = fopen($dumpPath, 'wb');
+        $bytesRead = 0;
+        while (!feof($dump)) {
+            fwrite($outfile, fread($dump, $bufferSize), $bufferSize);
+            $bytesRead += $bufferSize;
+        }
+        fclose($dump);
+        fclose($outfile);
+        return $bytesRead;
+    }
 }
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/tests/PHPUnit/Framework/Fixture.php b/tests/PHPUnit/Framework/Fixture.php
index 6735a8d1269..693b76e2804 100644
--- a/tests/PHPUnit/Framework/Fixture.php
+++ b/tests/PHPUnit/Framework/Fixture.php
@@ -727,6 +727,10 @@ public static function downloadAndUnzip($url, $outputDir, $filename)
 
         $dump = fopen($url, 'rb');
         $outfile = fopen($outfileName, 'wb');
+        if(!$outfile) {
+            throw new Exception("Failed to create file $outfileName - please check permissions");
+        }
+
         while (!feof($dump)) {
             fwrite($outfile, fread($dump, $bufferSize), $bufferSize);
         }