diff --git a/wp-includes/class-wp-image-editor-gd.php b/wp-includes/class-wp-image-editor-gd.php
index 9248c7e620..4f743ac9a5 100644
--- a/wp-includes/class-wp-image-editor-gd.php
+++ b/wp-includes/class-wp-image-editor-gd.php
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ class WP_Image_Editor_GD extends WP_Image_Editor {
 		if ( $this->image )
 			return true;
 
-		if ( ! file_exists( $this->file ) )
+		if ( ! is_file( $this->file ) )
 			return new WP_Error( 'error_loading_image', __('File doesn’t exist?'), $this->file );
 
 		// Set artificially high because GD uses uncompressed images in memory
diff --git a/wp-includes/class-wp-image-editor-imagick.php b/wp-includes/class-wp-image-editor-imagick.php
index 9d2c8220f5..ef0ccb33f1 100644
--- a/wp-includes/class-wp-image-editor-imagick.php
+++ b/wp-includes/class-wp-image-editor-imagick.php
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ class WP_Image_Editor_Imagick extends WP_Image_Editor {
 		if ( $this->image )
 			return true;
 
-		if ( ! file_exists( $this->file ) )
+		if ( ! is_file( $this->file ) )
 			return new WP_Error( 'error_loading_image', __('File doesn’t exist?'), $this->file );
 
 		try {
diff --git a/wp-includes/deprecated.php b/wp-includes/deprecated.php
index abdd265e3a..9e99614c49 100644
--- a/wp-includes/deprecated.php
+++ b/wp-includes/deprecated.php
@@ -3221,7 +3221,7 @@ function wp_load_image( $file ) {
 	if ( is_numeric( $file ) )
 		$file = get_attached_file( $file );
 
-	if ( ! file_exists( $file ) )
+	if ( ! is_file( $file ) )
 		return sprintf(__('File “%s” doesn’t exist?'), $file);
 
 	if ( ! function_exists('imagecreatefromstring') )