diff --git a/services/dask-sidecar/src/simcore_service_dask_sidecar/file_utils.py b/services/dask-sidecar/src/simcore_service_dask_sidecar/file_utils.py
index ed1db6163d23..87d4096af54d 100644
--- a/services/dask-sidecar/src/simcore_service_dask_sidecar/file_utils.py
+++ b/services/dask-sidecar/src/simcore_service_dask_sidecar/file_utils.py
@@ -106,8 +106,12 @@ async def _copy_file(
     src_storage_kwargs = src_storage_cfg or {}
     dst_storage_kwargs = dst_storage_cfg or {}
     with (
-        fsspec.open(f"{src_url}", mode="rb", **src_storage_kwargs) as src_fp,
-        fsspec.open(f"{dst_url}", mode="wb", **dst_storage_kwargs) as dst_fp,
+        fsspec.open(
+            f"{src_url}", mode="rb", expand=False, **src_storage_kwargs
+        ) as src_fp,
+        fsspec.open(
+            f"{dst_url}", mode="wb", expand=False, **dst_storage_kwargs
+        ) as dst_fp,
     ):
         assert isinstance(src_fp, IOBase)  # nosec
         assert isinstance(dst_fp, IOBase)  # nosec