diff --git a/misc/userscripts/open_download b/misc/userscripts/open_download
index 7962b59bf..4bd22455e 100755
--- a/misc/userscripts/open_download
+++ b/misc/userscripts/open_download
@@ -71,7 +71,9 @@ crop-first-column() {
 }
 
 ls-files() {
-    ls -Q --quoting-style escape    -h  -o -1 -A -t "${DOWNLOAD_DIR}" \
+    # add the slash at the end of the download dir enforces to follow the
+    # symlink, if the DOWNLOAD_DIR itself is a symlink
+    ls -Q --quoting-style escape    -h  -o -1 -A -t "${DOWNLOAD_DIR}/" \
         | grep '^[-]' \
         | cut -d' ' -f3- \
         | sed 's,^\(.*[^\]\) \(.*\)$,\2\t\1,' \