diff --git a/scrapy/core/downloader/handlers/__init__.py b/scrapy/core/downloader/handlers/__init__.py
index 0b55d32fa..e8beb2f5a 100644
--- a/scrapy/core/downloader/handlers/__init__.py
+++ b/scrapy/core/downloader/handlers/__init__.py
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ from twisted.internet import defer
 import six
 from scrapy.exceptions import NotSupported, NotConfigured
 from scrapy.utils.httpobj import urlparse_cached
-from scrapy.utils.misc import load_object
+from scrapy.utils.misc import create_instance, load_object
 from scrapy.utils.python import without_none_values
 from scrapy import signals
 
@@ -48,7 +48,11 @@ class DownloadHandlers(object):
             dhcls = load_object(path)
             if skip_lazy and getattr(dhcls, 'lazy', True):
                 return None
-            dh = dhcls(self._crawler.settings)
+            dh = create_instance(
+                dhcls,
+                self._crawler.settings,
+                self._crawler,
+            )
         except NotConfigured as ex:
             self._notconfigured[scheme] = str(ex)
             return None
diff --git a/scrapy/core/downloader/handlers/datauri.py b/scrapy/core/downloader/handlers/datauri.py
index 9e5020753..97134e618 100644
--- a/scrapy/core/downloader/handlers/datauri.py
+++ b/scrapy/core/downloader/handlers/datauri.py
@@ -8,9 +8,6 @@ from scrapy.utils.decorators import defers
 class DataURIDownloadHandler(object):
     lazy = False
 
-    def __init__(self, settings):
-        super(DataURIDownloadHandler, self).__init__()
-
     @defers
     def download_request(self, request, spider):
         uri = parse_data_uri(request.url)
diff --git a/scrapy/core/downloader/handlers/file.py b/scrapy/core/downloader/handlers/file.py
index 23f25d28d..d445ba2e1 100644
--- a/scrapy/core/downloader/handlers/file.py
+++ b/scrapy/core/downloader/handlers/file.py
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 from w3lib.url import file_uri_to_path
+
 from scrapy.responsetypes import responsetypes
 from scrapy.utils.decorators import defers
 
@@ -6,9 +7,6 @@ from scrapy.utils.decorators import defers
 class FileDownloadHandler(object):
     lazy = False
 
-    def __init__(self, settings):
-        pass
-
     @defers
     def download_request(self, request, spider):
         filepath = file_uri_to_path(request.url)
diff --git a/scrapy/core/downloader/handlers/ftp.py b/scrapy/core/downloader/handlers/ftp.py
index 39ed67a1a..7a98361ed 100644
--- a/scrapy/core/downloader/handlers/ftp.py
+++ b/scrapy/core/downloader/handlers/ftp.py
@@ -59,6 +59,7 @@ class ReceivedDataProtocol(Protocol):
     def close(self):
         self.body.close() if self.filename else self.body.seek(0)
 
+
 _CODE_RE = re.compile(r"\d+")
 
 
@@ -70,10 +71,14 @@ class FTPDownloadHandler(object):
         "default": 503,
     }
 
-    def __init__(self, settings):
-        self.default_user = settings['FTP_USER']
-        self.default_password = settings['FTP_PASSWORD']
-        self.passive_mode = settings['FTP_PASSIVE_MODE']
+    def __init__(self, crawler):
+        self.default_user = crawler.settings['FTP_USER']
+        self.default_password = crawler.settings['FTP_PASSWORD']
+        self.passive_mode = crawler.settings['FTP_PASSIVE_MODE']
+
+    @classmethod
+    def from_crawler(cls, crawler):
+        return cls(crawler)
 
     def download_request(self, request, spider):
         parsed_url = urlparse_cached(request)
diff --git a/scrapy/core/downloader/handlers/http10.py b/scrapy/core/downloader/handlers/http10.py
index be7298531..ce0801bcc 100644
--- a/scrapy/core/downloader/handlers/http10.py
+++ b/scrapy/core/downloader/handlers/http10.py
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 """Download handlers for http and https schemes
 """
 from twisted.internet import reactor
+
 from scrapy.utils.misc import load_object, create_instance
 from scrapy.utils.python import to_unicode
 
@@ -8,10 +9,15 @@ from scrapy.utils.python import to_unicode
 class HTTP10DownloadHandler(object):
     lazy = False
 
-    def __init__(self, settings):
-        self.HTTPClientFactory = load_object(settings['DOWNLOADER_HTTPCLIENTFACTORY'])
-        self.ClientContextFactory = load_object(settings['DOWNLOADER_CLIENTCONTEXTFACTORY'])
-        self._settings = settings
+    def __init__(self, crawler):
+        self.HTTPClientFactory = load_object(crawler.settings['DOWNLOADER_HTTPCLIENTFACTORY'])
+        self.ClientContextFactory = load_object(crawler.settings['DOWNLOADER_CLIENTCONTEXTFACTORY'])
+        self._crawler = crawler
+        self._settings = crawler.settings
+
+    @classmethod
+    def from_crawler(cls, crawler):
+        return cls(crawler)
 
     def download_request(self, request, spider):
         """Return a deferred for the HTTP download"""
@@ -22,7 +28,11 @@ class HTTP10DownloadHandler(object):
     def _connect(self, factory):
         host, port = to_unicode(factory.host), factory.port
         if factory.scheme == b'https':
-            client_context_factory = create_instance(self.ClientContextFactory, settings=self._settings, crawler=None)
+            client_context_factory = create_instance(
+                self.ClientContextFactory,
+                settings=self._settings,
+                crawler=self._crawler,
+            )
             return reactor.connectSSL(host, port, factory, client_context_factory)
         else:
             return reactor.connectTCP(host, port, factory)
diff --git a/scrapy/core/downloader/handlers/http11.py b/scrapy/core/downloader/handlers/http11.py
index 7d917cb74..b424a7999 100644
--- a/scrapy/core/downloader/handlers/http11.py
+++ b/scrapy/core/downloader/handlers/http11.py
@@ -30,7 +30,9 @@ logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 class HTTP11DownloadHandler(object):
     lazy = False
 
-    def __init__(self, settings):
+    def __init__(self, crawler):
+        settings = crawler.settings
+
         self._pool = HTTPConnectionPool(reactor, persistent=True)
         self._pool.maxPersistentPerHost = settings.getint('CONCURRENT_REQUESTS_PER_DOMAIN')
         self._pool._factory.noisy = False
@@ -42,7 +44,7 @@ class HTTP11DownloadHandler(object):
             self._contextFactory = create_instance(
                 self._contextFactoryClass,
                 settings=settings,
-                crawler=None,
+                crawler=crawler,
                 method=self._sslMethod,
             )
         except TypeError:
@@ -50,7 +52,7 @@ class HTTP11DownloadHandler(object):
             self._contextFactory = create_instance(
                 self._contextFactoryClass,
                 settings=settings,
-                crawler=None,
+                crawler=crawler,
             )
             msg = """
  '%s' does not accept `method` argument (type OpenSSL.SSL method,\
@@ -63,6 +65,10 @@ class HTTP11DownloadHandler(object):
         self._fail_on_dataloss = settings.getbool('DOWNLOAD_FAIL_ON_DATALOSS')
         self._disconnect_timeout = 1
 
+    @classmethod
+    def from_crawler(cls, crawler):
+        return cls(crawler)
+
     def download_request(self, request, spider):
         """Return a deferred for the HTTP download"""
         agent = ScrapyAgent(
diff --git a/scrapy/core/downloader/handlers/s3.py b/scrapy/core/downloader/handlers/s3.py
index 808d1bf21..220296fb3 100644
--- a/scrapy/core/downloader/handlers/s3.py
+++ b/scrapy/core/downloader/handlers/s3.py
@@ -32,13 +32,12 @@ def _get_boto_connection():
 
 class S3DownloadHandler(object):
 
-    def __init__(self, settings, aws_access_key_id=None, aws_secret_access_key=None, \
-            httpdownloadhandler=HTTPDownloadHandler, **kw):
-
+    def __init__(self, crawler, aws_access_key_id=None, aws_secret_access_key=None,
+                 httpdownloadhandler=HTTPDownloadHandler, **kw):
         if not aws_access_key_id:
-            aws_access_key_id = settings['AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID']
+            aws_access_key_id = crawler.settings['AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID']
         if not aws_secret_access_key:
-            aws_secret_access_key = settings['AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY']
+            aws_secret_access_key = crawler.settings['AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY']
 
         # If no credentials could be found anywhere,
         # consider this an anonymous connection request by default;
@@ -67,7 +66,11 @@ class S3DownloadHandler(object):
             except Exception as ex:
                 raise NotConfigured(str(ex))
 
-        self._download_http = httpdownloadhandler(settings).download_request
+        self._download_http = httpdownloadhandler(crawler).download_request
+
+    @classmethod
+    def from_crawler(cls, crawler):
+        return cls(crawler)
 
     def download_request(self, request, spider):
         p = urlparse_cached(request)
diff --git a/tests/test_downloader_handlers.py b/tests/test_downloader_handlers.py
index 60124b93f..815342219 100644
--- a/tests/test_downloader_handlers.py
+++ b/tests/test_downloader_handlers.py
@@ -30,7 +30,6 @@ from scrapy.spiders import Spider
 from scrapy.http import Headers, Request
 from scrapy.http.response.text import TextResponse
 from scrapy.responsetypes import responsetypes
-from scrapy.settings import Settings
 from scrapy.utils.test import get_crawler, skip_if_no_boto
 from scrapy.utils.python import to_bytes
 from scrapy.exceptions import NotConfigured
@@ -45,6 +44,10 @@ class DummyDH(object):
     def __init__(self, crawler):
         pass
 
+    @classmethod
+    def from_crawler(cls, crawler):
+        return cls(crawler)
+
 
 class DummyLazyDH(object):
     # Default is lazy for backward compatibility
@@ -52,6 +55,10 @@ class DummyLazyDH(object):
     def __init__(self, crawler):
         pass
 
+    @classmethod
+    def from_crawler(cls, crawler):
+        return cls(crawler)
+
 
 class OffDH(object):
     lazy = False
@@ -59,6 +66,10 @@ class OffDH(object):
     def __init__(self, crawler):
         raise NotConfigured
 
+    @classmethod
+    def from_crawler(cls, crawler):
+        return cls(crawler)
+
 
 class LoadTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
 
@@ -106,7 +117,7 @@ class FileTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
         self.tmpname = self.mktemp()
         with open(self.tmpname + '^', 'w') as f:
             f.write('0123456789')
-        self.download_request = FileDownloadHandler(Settings()).download_request
+        self.download_request = FileDownloadHandler().download_request
 
     def tearDown(self):
         os.unlink(self.tmpname + '^')
@@ -239,7 +250,7 @@ class HttpTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
         else:
             self.port = reactor.listenTCP(0, self.wrapper, interface=self.host)
         self.portno = self.port.getHost().port
-        self.download_handler = self.download_handler_cls(Settings())
+        self.download_handler = self.download_handler_cls(get_crawler())
         self.download_request = self.download_handler.download_request
 
     @defer.inlineCallbacks
@@ -479,9 +490,9 @@ class Http11TestCase(HttpTestCase):
         return self.test_download_broken_content_allow_data_loss('broken-chunked')
 
     def test_download_broken_content_allow_data_loss_via_setting(self, url='broken'):
-        download_handler = self.download_handler_cls(Settings({
-            'DOWNLOAD_FAIL_ON_DATALOSS': False,
-        }))
+        download_handler = self.download_handler_cls(
+            get_crawler(settings_dict={'DOWNLOAD_FAIL_ON_DATALOSS': False})
+        )
         request = Request(self.getURL(url))
         d = download_handler.download_request(request, Spider('foo'))
         d.addCallback(lambda r: r.flags)
@@ -499,9 +510,9 @@ class Https11TestCase(Http11TestCase):
 
     @defer.inlineCallbacks
     def test_tls_logging(self):
-        download_handler = self.download_handler_cls(Settings({
-            'DOWNLOADER_CLIENT_TLS_VERBOSE_LOGGING': True,
-        }))
+        download_handler = self.download_handler_cls(
+            get_crawler(settings_dict={'DOWNLOADER_CLIENT_TLS_VERBOSE_LOGGING': True})
+        )
         try:
             with LogCapture() as log_capture:
                 request = Request(self.getURL('file'))
@@ -569,7 +580,8 @@ class Https11CustomCiphers(unittest.TestCase):
             interface=self.host)
         self.portno = self.port.getHost().port
         self.download_handler = self.download_handler_cls(
-            Settings({'DOWNLOADER_CLIENT_TLS_CIPHERS': 'CAMELLIA256-SHA'}))
+            get_crawler(settings_dict={'DOWNLOADER_CLIENT_TLS_CIPHERS': 'CAMELLIA256-SHA'})
+        )
         self.download_request = self.download_handler.download_request
 
     @defer.inlineCallbacks
@@ -665,7 +677,7 @@ class HttpProxyTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
         wrapper = WrappingFactory(site)
         self.port = reactor.listenTCP(0, wrapper, interface='127.0.0.1')
         self.portno = self.port.getHost().port
-        self.download_handler = self.download_handler_cls(Settings())
+        self.download_handler = self.download_handler_cls(get_crawler())
         self.download_request = self.download_handler.download_request
 
     @defer.inlineCallbacks
@@ -738,9 +750,10 @@ class S3AnonTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
 
     def setUp(self):
         skip_if_no_boto()
-        self.s3reqh = S3DownloadHandler(Settings(),
-                httpdownloadhandler=HttpDownloadHandlerMock,
-                #anon=True, # is implicit
+        self.s3reqh = S3DownloadHandler(
+            crawler=get_crawler(),
+            httpdownloadhandler=HttpDownloadHandlerMock,
+            #anon=True, # is implicit
         )
         self.download_request = self.s3reqh.download_request
         self.spider = Spider('foo')
@@ -766,9 +779,12 @@ class S3TestCase(unittest.TestCase):
 
     def setUp(self):
         skip_if_no_boto()
-        s3reqh = S3DownloadHandler(Settings(), self.AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID,
-                self.AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY,
-                httpdownloadhandler=HttpDownloadHandlerMock)
+        s3reqh = S3DownloadHandler(
+            get_crawler(),
+            self.AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID,
+            self.AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY,
+            httpdownloadhandler=HttpDownloadHandlerMock,
+        )
         self.download_request = s3reqh.download_request
         self.spider = Spider('foo')
 
@@ -788,7 +804,7 @@ class S3TestCase(unittest.TestCase):
 
     def test_extra_kw(self):
         try:
-            S3DownloadHandler(Settings(), extra_kw=True)
+            S3DownloadHandler(get_crawler(), extra_kw=True)
         except Exception as e:
             self.assertIsInstance(e, (TypeError, NotConfigured))
         else:
@@ -928,7 +944,7 @@ class BaseFTPTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
         self.factory = FTPFactory(portal=p)
         self.port = reactor.listenTCP(0, self.factory, interface="127.0.0.1")
         self.portNum = self.port.getHost().port
-        self.download_handler = FTPDownloadHandler(Settings())
+        self.download_handler = FTPDownloadHandler(get_crawler())
         self.addCleanup(self.port.stopListening)
 
     def tearDown(self):
@@ -1042,7 +1058,7 @@ class AnonymousFTPTestCase(BaseFTPTestCase):
                                   userAnonymous=self.username)
         self.port = reactor.listenTCP(0, self.factory, interface="127.0.0.1")
         self.portNum = self.port.getHost().port
-        self.download_handler = FTPDownloadHandler(Settings())
+        self.download_handler = FTPDownloadHandler(get_crawler())
         self.addCleanup(self.port.stopListening)
 
     def tearDown(self):
@@ -1052,7 +1068,7 @@ class AnonymousFTPTestCase(BaseFTPTestCase):
 class DataURITestCase(unittest.TestCase):
 
     def setUp(self):
-        self.download_handler = DataURIDownloadHandler(Settings())
+        self.download_handler = DataURIDownloadHandler()
         self.download_request = self.download_handler.download_request
         self.spider = Spider('foo')