diff --git a/extensions/gdata/src/com/google/refine/extension/gdata/UploadCommand.java b/extensions/gdata/src/com/google/refine/extension/gdata/UploadCommand.java
index bf73f0f9c..15c1cf657 100644
--- a/extensions/gdata/src/com/google/refine/extension/gdata/UploadCommand.java
+++ b/extensions/gdata/src/com/google/refine/extension/gdata/UploadCommand.java
@@ -30,12 +30,10 @@
 
 package com.google.refine.extension.gdata;
 
-import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream;
 import java.io.FileOutputStream;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.InputStream;
 import java.io.Writer;
-import java.net.URL;
 import java.util.LinkedList;
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Properties;
@@ -44,7 +42,7 @@ import javax.servlet.ServletException;
 import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
 import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;
 
-import org.apache.commons.codec.binary.Base64;
+import org.apache.commons.io.IOUtils;
 import org.apache.commons.lang3.exception.ExceptionUtils;
 import org.slf4j.Logger;
 import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
@@ -69,7 +67,7 @@ public class UploadCommand extends Command {
     static final Logger logger = LoggerFactory.getLogger("gdata_upload");
     
     private static final String METADATA_DESCRIPTION = "OpenRefine project dump";
-    private static final String METADATA_ICONLINK = "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/OpenRefine/OpenRefine/master/main/webapp/modules/core/images/logo-openrefine-550.png";
+    private static final String METADATA_ICON_FILE = "logo-openrefine-550.png";
     @Override
     public void doPost(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response)
             throws ServletException, IOException {
@@ -132,7 +130,7 @@ public class UploadCommand extends Command {
         }
     }
 
-    static private String upload(
+    private String upload(
             Project project, Engine engine, Properties params,
             String token, String name, List<Exception> exceptions) {
         String format = params.getProperty("format");
@@ -143,23 +141,13 @@ public class UploadCommand extends Command {
         }
         return null;
     }
-    
-    private static byte[] getImageFromUrl(String urlText) throws IOException {
-        URL url = new URL(urlText);
-        ByteArrayOutputStream output = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
-         
-        try (InputStream inputStream = url.openStream()) {
-            int n = 0;
-            byte [] buffer = new byte[ 1024 ];
-            while (-1 != (n = inputStream.read(buffer))) {
-                output.write(buffer, 0, n);
-            }
-        }
-     
-        return output.toByteArray();
+
+    protected byte[] getIconImage() throws IOException {
+        InputStream is = getClass().getResourceAsStream(METADATA_ICON_FILE);
+        return IOUtils.toByteArray(is);
     }
 
-    private static String uploadOpenRefineProject(Project project, String token,
+    private String uploadOpenRefineProject(Project project, String token,
             String name, List<Exception> exceptions) {
         FileOutputStream fos = null;
         
@@ -169,15 +157,13 @@ public class UploadCommand extends Command {
             
             fos = new FileOutputStream(filePath);
             FileProjectManager.gzipTarToOutputStream(project, fos);
-            
-            File fileMetadata = new File();
-            String asB64 = Base64.encodeBase64URLSafeString(getImageFromUrl(METADATA_ICONLINK));
-            
+
             Thumbnail tn = new Thumbnail();
-            tn.setMimeType("image/x-icon").setImage(asB64);
+            tn.setMimeType("image/x-icon").encodeImage(getIconImage());
             ContentHints contentHints = new ContentHints();
             contentHints.setThumbnail(tn); 
-            
+
+            File fileMetadata = new File();
             fileMetadata.setName(name)
                 .setDescription(METADATA_DESCRIPTION)
                 .setContentHints(contentHints);
diff --git a/extensions/gdata/src/com/google/refine/extension/gdata/logo-openrefine-550.png b/extensions/gdata/src/com/google/refine/extension/gdata/logo-openrefine-550.png
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..4fcbd6989
Binary files /dev/null and b/extensions/gdata/src/com/google/refine/extension/gdata/logo-openrefine-550.png differ
diff --git a/extensions/gdata/tests/src/com/google/refine/extension/gdata/UploadCommandTest.java b/extensions/gdata/tests/src/com/google/refine/extension/gdata/UploadCommandTest.java
index 5f04f585c..9ccb9ccad 100644
--- a/extensions/gdata/tests/src/com/google/refine/extension/gdata/UploadCommandTest.java
+++ b/extensions/gdata/tests/src/com/google/refine/extension/gdata/UploadCommandTest.java
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ package com.google.refine.extension.gdata;
 
 import static org.mockito.Mockito.mock;
 import static org.mockito.Mockito.when;
+import static org.testng.Assert.assertEquals;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.PrintWriter;
@@ -19,12 +20,21 @@ import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.node.ObjectNode;
 import com.google.refine.commands.Command;
 import com.google.refine.util.ParsingUtilities;
 
+
+class UploadCommandStub extends UploadCommand {
+
+    public byte[] getIcon() throws IOException {
+        return getIconImage();
+    }
+}
+
 public class UploadCommandTest {
-	protected HttpServletRequest request = null;
+    protected HttpServletRequest request = null;
     protected HttpServletResponse response = null;
     protected Command command = null;
     protected StringWriter writer = null;
-    
+
+
 	@BeforeMethod
 	public void setUpRequestResponse() {
 		request = mock(HttpServletRequest.class);
@@ -46,4 +56,10 @@ public class UploadCommandTest {
 				ParsingUtilities.mapper.readValue(writer.toString(), ObjectNode.class));
 
 	}
+
+    @Test
+    public void testIconRead() throws IOException {
+        UploadCommandStub cmd = new UploadCommandStub();
+        assertEquals(cmd.getIconImage().length, 58994);
+    }
 }