diff --git a/lisp/org-html.el b/lisp/org-html.el
index dcdc39eb2..735867f08 100644
--- a/lisp/org-html.el
+++ b/lisp/org-html.el
@@ -640,7 +640,8 @@ MAY-INLINE-P allows inlining it as an image."
(setq thefile
(let
((str (org-export-html-format-href thefile)))
- (if (and type (string-match "^//" str))
+ (if (and type (not (string= "file" type))
+ (string-match "^//" str))
(concat type ":" str)
str)))