diff --git a/src/Registry/Registry.jl b/src/Registry/Registry.jl
index 0d2370cd8e..805de76d5c 100644
--- a/src/Registry/Registry.jl
+++ b/src/Registry/Registry.jl
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ module Registry
 import ..Pkg
 using ..Pkg: depots1, printpkgstyle, DEFAULT_IO, isdir_nothrow, pathrepr, pkg_server,
              GitTools, OFFLINE_MODE, UPDATED_REGISTRY_THIS_SESSION
-using ..Pkg.PlatformEngines: download_verify_unpack, download
+using ..Pkg.PlatformEngines: download_verify_unpack, download, download_verify
 using UUIDs, LibGit2
 
 include("tar_filesystem.jl")
@@ -175,12 +175,15 @@ function download_registries(io::IO, regs::Vector{RegistrySpec}, depot::String=d
         end
         # clone to tmpdir first
         if registry_read_from_tarball()
-            regpath = joinpath(depot, "registries", registry.uuid, ".tar.gz")
+            url, registry_urls = pkg_server_registry_url(reg.uuid, registry_urls)
+            regpath = joinpath(depot, "registries", string(reg.uuid) * ".tar.gz")
+            tmp = tempname()
             try
-                download_verify(url, nothing, regpath, ignore_existence = true)
+                download_verify(url, nothing, tmp)
             catch err
                 Pkg.Types.pkgerror("could not download $url")
             end
+            mv(tmp, regpath; force=true)
         else
             mktempdir() do tmp
                 url, registry_urls = pkg_server_registry_url(reg.uuid, registry_urls)
diff --git a/src/Registry/registry_instance.jl b/src/Registry/registry_instance.jl
index 9b055d4beb..ce292644f9 100644
--- a/src/Registry/registry_instance.jl
+++ b/src/Registry/registry_instance.jl
@@ -183,13 +183,6 @@ function init_package_info!(pkg::PkgEntry)
     return pkg.info
 end
 
-
-mutable struct InMemoryRegistry
-    d::Dict{String, String}
-    name::String
-end
-readfile(reg::InMemoryRegistry, path::AbstractString) = reg.d[joinpath(reg.name, path)] 
-
 struct RegistryInstance
     path::String
     name::String
@@ -270,11 +263,18 @@ function reachable_registries(; depots::Union{String, Vector{String}}=Base.DEPOT
     for d in depots
         isdir(d) || continue
         reg_dir = joinpath(d, "registries")
-        isdir(reg_dir) || continue
-        for name in readdir(reg_dir)
-            file = joinpath(reg_dir, name, "Registry.toml")
-            isfile(file) || continue
-            push!(registries, RegistryInstance(joinpath(reg_dir, name); parse_packages))
+        ispath(reg_dir) || continue
+        if isfile(reg_dir)
+        elseif isdir(reg_dir)
+            for name in readdir(reg_dir)
+                if isfile(joinpath(reg_dir, name))
+                    push!(registries, RegistryInstance(joinpath(reg_dir, name); parse_packages))
+                else
+                    file = joinpath(reg_dir, name, "Registry.toml")
+                    isfile(file) || continue
+                    push!(registries, RegistryInstance(joinpath(reg_dir, name); parse_packages))
+                end
+            end
         end
     end
     return registries