diff --git a/test/test_YoutubeDLCookieJar.py b/test/test_YoutubeDLCookieJar.py
index f833efac5..f959798de 100644
--- a/test/test_YoutubeDLCookieJar.py
+++ b/test/test_YoutubeDLCookieJar.py
@@ -14,9 +14,6 @@ from youtube_dl.utils import YoutubeDLCookieJar
 
 
 class TestYoutubeDLCookieJar(unittest.TestCase):
-    def __assert_cookie_has_value(self, cookiejar, key):
-        self.assertEqual(cookiejar._cookies['www.foobar.foobar']['/'][key].value, key + '_VALUE')
-
     def test_keep_session_cookies(self):
         cookiejar = YoutubeDLCookieJar('./test/testdata/cookies/session_cookies.txt')
         cookiejar.load(ignore_discard=True, ignore_expires=True)
@@ -35,13 +32,12 @@ class TestYoutubeDLCookieJar(unittest.TestCase):
     def test_strip_httponly_prefix(self):
         cookiejar = YoutubeDLCookieJar('./test/testdata/cookies/httponly_cookies.txt')
         cookiejar.load(ignore_discard=True, ignore_expires=True)
-        self.__assert_cookie_has_value(cookiejar, 'HTTPONLY_COOKIE')
-        self.__assert_cookie_has_value(cookiejar, 'JS_ACCESSIBLE_COOKIE')
 
-    def test_convert_spaces_to_tabs(self):
-        cookiejar = YoutubeDLCookieJar('./test/testdata/cookies/cookie_file_with_spaces.txt')
-        cookiejar.load(ignore_discard=True, ignore_expires=True)
-        self.__assert_cookie_has_value(cookiejar, 'COOKIE')
+        def assert_cookie_has_value(key):
+            self.assertEqual(cookiejar._cookies['www.foobar.foobar']['/'][key].value, key + '_VALUE')
+
+        assert_cookie_has_value('HTTPONLY_COOKIE')
+        assert_cookie_has_value('JS_ACCESSIBLE_COOKIE')
 
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':
diff --git a/test/testdata/cookies/cookie_file_with_spaces.txt b/test/testdata/cookies/cookie_file_with_spaces.txt
deleted file mode 100644
index 6fda35fa0..000000000
--- a/test/testdata/cookies/cookie_file_with_spaces.txt
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,5 +0,0 @@
-# Netscape HTTP Cookie File
-# http://curl.haxx.se/rfc/cookie_spec.html
-# This is a generated file!  Do not edit.
-
-www.foobar.foobar     FALSE   /       TRUE    2147483647      COOKIE COOKIE_VALUE
diff --git a/youtube_dl/utils.py b/youtube_dl/utils.py
index 93d1dec05..38262bee4 100644
--- a/youtube_dl/utils.py
+++ b/youtube_dl/utils.py
@@ -2729,6 +2729,11 @@ class YoutubeDLHTTPSHandler(compat_urllib_request.HTTPSHandler):
 
 
 class YoutubeDLCookieJar(compat_cookiejar.MozillaCookieJar):
+    """
+    See [1] for cookie file format.
+
+    1. https://curl.haxx.se/docs/http-cookies.html
+    """
     _HTTPONLY_PREFIX = '#HttpOnly_'
 
     def save(self, filename=None, ignore_discard=False, ignore_expires=False):
@@ -2752,11 +2757,6 @@ class YoutubeDLCookieJar(compat_cookiejar.MozillaCookieJar):
             for line in f:
                 if line.startswith(self._HTTPONLY_PREFIX):
                     line = line[len(self._HTTPONLY_PREFIX):]
-                # Cookie file may contain spaces instead of tabs.
-                # Replace all spaces with tabs to make such cookie files work
-                # with MozillaCookieJar.
-                if not line.startswith('#'):
-                    line = re.sub(r' +', r'\t', line)
                 cf.write(compat_str(line))
         cf.seek(0)
         self._really_load(cf, filename, ignore_discard, ignore_expires)