diff --git a/pydrive2/files.py b/pydrive2/files.py
index cc77785..3065e97 100644
--- a/pydrive2/files.py
+++ b/pydrive2/files.py
@@ -1,4 +1,3 @@
-import os
 import io
 import mimetypes
 import json
@@ -262,9 +261,7 @@ def SetContentString(self, content, encoding="utf-8"):
     :param content: content of the file in string.
     :type content: str
     """
-        if content:
-            self.content = io.BytesIO(content.encode(encoding))
-
+        self.content = io.BytesIO(content.encode(encoding))
         if self.get("mimeType") is None:
             self["mimeType"] = "text/plain"
 
@@ -278,9 +275,7 @@ def SetContentFile(self, filename):
     :param filename: name of the file to be uploaded.
     :type filename: str.
     """
-        if os.path.getsize(filename):
-            self.content = open(filename, "rb")
-
+        self.content = open(filename, "rb")
         if self.get("title") is None:
             self["title"] = filename
         if self.get("mimeType") is None:
@@ -358,32 +353,20 @@ def download(fd, request):
                 download(fd, files.get_media(fileId=file_id))
             except errors.HttpError as error:
                 exc = ApiRequestError(error)
-                code = exc.error["code"]
-                reason = exc.GetField("reason")
-                if code == 403 and reason == "fileNotDownloadable":
-                    mimetype = mimetype or "text/plain"
-                    fd.seek(0)  # just in case `download()` modified `fd`
-                    try:
-                        download(
-                            fd,
-                            files.export_media(
-                                fileId=file_id, mimeType=mimetype
-                            ),
-                        )
-                    except errors.HttpError as error:
-                        raise ApiRequestError(error)
-                elif code == 416 and reason == "requestedRangeNotSatisfiable":
-                    # NOTE: An empty file case. Wasting one API call to make
-                    # absolutely sure. See
-                    # https://github.com/iterative/dvc/issues/4507
-                    try:
-                        self.FetchMetadata(fields="fileSize")
-                        if int(self["fileSize"]) != 0:
-                            raise exc
-                    except errors.HttpError:
-                        raise exc
-                else:
+                if (
+                    exc.error["code"] != 403
+                    or exc.GetField("reason") != "fileNotDownloadable"
+                ):
                     raise exc
+                mimetype = mimetype or "text/plain"
+                fd.seek(0)  # just in case `download()` modified `fd`
+                try:
+                    download(
+                        fd,
+                        files.export_media(fileId=file_id, mimeType=mimetype),
+                    )
+                except errors.HttpError as error:
+                    raise ApiRequestError(error)
 
             if mimetype == "text/plain" and remove_bom:
                 fd.seek(0)
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index c325c8d..3463838 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@
     description="Google Drive API made easy. Maintained fork of PyDrive.",
     long_description=open("README.rst").read(),
     install_requires=[
-        "google-api-python-client >= 1.12.1",
+        "google-api-python-client >= 1.12.5",
         "six >= 1.13.0",
         "oauth2client >= 4.0.0",
         "PyYAML >= 3.0",