diff --git a/package/pkg-download.mk b/package/pkg-download.mk
index 76afcedf36..a145011670 100644
--- a/package/pkg-download.mk
+++ b/package/pkg-download.mk
@@ -20,10 +20,6 @@ export LOCALFILES := $(call qstrip,$(BR2_LOCALFILES))
 
 DL_WRAPPER = support/download/dl-wrapper
 
-# Default spider mode is 'DOWNLOAD'. Other possible value is
-# 'SOURCE_CHECK' used by the _source-check target.
-DL_MODE = DOWNLOAD
-
 # DL_DIR may have been set already from the environment
 ifeq ($(origin DL_DIR),undefined)
 DL_DIR ?= $(call qstrip,$(BR2_DL_DIR))
@@ -212,7 +208,7 @@ endef
 ################################################################################
 
 define DOWNLOAD
-	$(call DOWNLOAD_INNER,$(1),$(notdir $(1)),$(DL_MODE))
+	$(call DOWNLOAD_INNER,$(1),$(notdir $(1)),DOWNLOAD)
 endef
 
 define SOURCE_CHECK