diff --git a/docs/topics/settings.rst b/docs/topics/settings.rst
index 3139bc03d..531862d9d 100644
--- a/docs/topics/settings.rst
+++ b/docs/topics/settings.rst
@@ -279,15 +279,6 @@ Default: ``True``
 
 Whether to enable DNS in-memory cache.
 
-.. setting:: DOWNLOADER_DEBUG
-
-DOWNLOADER_DEBUG
-----------------
-
-Default: ``False``
-
-Whether to enable the Downloader debugging mode.
-
 .. setting:: DOWNLOADER_MIDDLEWARES
 
 DOWNLOADER_MIDDLEWARES
diff --git a/scrapy/settings/default_settings.py b/scrapy/settings/default_settings.py
index e220a5a49..17957e5e4 100644
--- a/scrapy/settings/default_settings.py
+++ b/scrapy/settings/default_settings.py
@@ -66,8 +66,6 @@ DOWNLOAD_HANDLERS_BASE = {
 
 DOWNLOAD_TIMEOUT = 180      # 3mins
 
-DOWNLOADER_DEBUG = False
-
 DOWNLOADER_HTTPCLIENTFACTORY = 'scrapy.core.downloader.webclient.ScrapyHTTPClientFactory'
 DOWNLOADER_CLIENTCONTEXTFACTORY = 'scrapy.core.downloader.contextfactory.ScrapyClientContextFactory'