diff --git a/youtube-dl b/youtube-dl
index e681e2d3f..2a51ef421 100755
--- a/youtube-dl
+++ b/youtube-dl
@@ -2190,6 +2190,8 @@ if __name__ == '__main__':
 		else:
 			try:
 				jar = cookielib.MozillaCookieJar(opts.cookiefile)
+				if os.path.isfile(opts.cookiefile) and os.access(opts.cookiefile, os.R_OK):
+					jar.load()
 			except (IOError, OSError), err:
 				sys.exit(u'ERROR: unable to open cookie file')