diff --git a/src/main/java/eu/openaire/urls_worker/components/ScheduledTasks.java b/src/main/java/eu/openaire/urls_worker/components/ScheduledTasks.java
index 7a7cfc0..5c1d8ec 100644
--- a/src/main/java/eu/openaire/urls_worker/components/ScheduledTasks.java
+++ b/src/main/java/eu/openaire/urls_worker/components/ScheduledTasks.java
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 package eu.openaire.urls_worker.components;
 
+import eu.openaire.urls_worker.UrlsWorkerApplication;
 import eu.openaire.urls_worker.controllers.FullTextsController;
+import eu.openaire.urls_worker.controllers.GeneralController;
 import eu.openaire.urls_worker.plugins.PublicationsRetrieverPlugin;
 import eu.openaire.urls_worker.util.AssignmentsHandler;
 import org.apache.commons.io.FileUtils;
@@ -24,6 +26,8 @@ public class ScheduledTasks {
     @Scheduled(fixedDelay = 1)  // Request the next batch immediately after the last one finishes.
     public void handleNewAssignments() {
         if ( AssignmentsHandler.hadConnectionErrorOnRequest ) {
+            if ( GeneralController.shouldShutdownWorker )   // Make sure the worker shuts-down, in case the user sends the relevant request, while the worker is stuck in a data-request error-loop.
+                UrlsWorkerApplication.gentleAppShutdown();
             try {
                 Thread.sleep(900_000);  // Sleep for 15 mins to stall the scheduler from retrying right away, thus giving time to the Controller to recover.
             } catch (InterruptedException ie) {
diff --git a/src/main/java/eu/openaire/urls_worker/controllers/FullTextsController.java b/src/main/java/eu/openaire/urls_worker/controllers/FullTextsController.java
index bbc7e3a..ae16568 100644
--- a/src/main/java/eu/openaire/urls_worker/controllers/FullTextsController.java
+++ b/src/main/java/eu/openaire/urls_worker/controllers/FullTextsController.java
@@ -14,7 +14,8 @@ import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping;
 import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RestController;
 
 import java.io.File;
-import java.io.FileInputStream;
+import java.nio.file.Files;
+import java.nio.file.Paths;
 import java.util.HashMap;
 import java.util.List;
 
@@ -80,7 +81,7 @@ public class FullTextsController {
             return ResponseEntity.ok()
                     .contentType(MediaType.APPLICATION_OCTET_STREAM)
                     .header(HttpHeaders.CONTENT_DISPOSITION, "inline; filename=\"" + zipName + "\"")
-                    .body(new InputStreamResource(new FileInputStream(zipFileFullPath)));
+                    .body(new InputStreamResource(Files.newInputStream(Paths.get(zipFileFullPath))));
         } catch (Exception e) {
             String errorMsg = "Could not load the FileInputStream of the zip-file \"" + zipFileFullPath + "\"!";
             logger.error(errorMsg, e);
@@ -104,7 +105,7 @@ public class FullTextsController {
             return ResponseEntity.ok()
                     .contentType(MediaType.APPLICATION_OCTET_STREAM)
                     .header(HttpHeaders.CONTENT_DISPOSITION, "inline; filename=\"" + file.getName() + "\"")
-                    .body(new InputStreamResource(new FileInputStream(fullTextFileFullPath)));
+                    .body(new InputStreamResource(Files.newInputStream(Paths.get(fullTextFileFullPath))));
         } catch (Exception e) {
             String errorMsg = "Could not load the FileInputStream of the full-text-file \"" + fullTextFileFullPath + "\"!";
             logger.error(errorMsg, e);