diff --git a/google-http-client-apache-v2/src/test/java/com/google/api/client/http/apache/v2/ApacheHttpTransportTest.java b/google-http-client-apache-v2/src/test/java/com/google/api/client/http/apache/v2/ApacheHttpTransportTest.java
index 48a9d1c56..b01cfc47e 100644
--- a/google-http-client-apache-v2/src/test/java/com/google/api/client/http/apache/v2/ApacheHttpTransportTest.java
+++ b/google-http-client-apache-v2/src/test/java/com/google/api/client/http/apache/v2/ApacheHttpTransportTest.java
@@ -338,4 +338,38 @@ public void handle(HttpExchange httpExchange) throws IOException {
   private boolean isWindows() {
     return System.getProperty("os.name").startsWith("Windows");
   }
+
+  @Test(timeout = 10_000L)
+  public void testDisconnectShouldNotWaitToReadResponse() throws IOException {
+    // This handler waits for 100s before returning writing content. The test should
+    // timeout if disconnect waits for the response before closing the connection.
+    final HttpHandler handler =
+        new HttpHandler() {
+          @Override
+          public void handle(HttpExchange httpExchange) throws IOException {
+            byte[] response = httpExchange.getRequestURI().toString().getBytes();
+            httpExchange.sendResponseHeaders(200, response.length);
+
+            // Sleep for longer than the test timeout
+            try {
+              Thread.sleep(100_000);
+            } catch (InterruptedException e) {
+              throw new IOException("interrupted", e);
+            }
+            try (OutputStream out = httpExchange.getResponseBody()) {
+              out.write(response);
+            }
+          }
+        };
+
+    try (FakeServer server = new FakeServer(handler)) {
+      HttpTransport transport = new ApacheHttpTransport();
+      GenericUrl testUrl = new GenericUrl("http://localhost/foo//bar");
+      testUrl.setPort(server.getPort());
+      com.google.api.client.http.HttpResponse response =
+          transport.createRequestFactory().buildGetRequest(testUrl).execute();
+      // disconnect should not wait to read the entire content
+      response.disconnect();
+    }
+  }
 }
diff --git a/google-http-client/src/main/java/com/google/api/client/http/HttpResponse.java b/google-http-client/src/main/java/com/google/api/client/http/HttpResponse.java
index 130208671..7f75bccd6 100644
--- a/google-http-client/src/main/java/com/google/api/client/http/HttpResponse.java
+++ b/google-http-client/src/main/java/com/google/api/client/http/HttpResponse.java
@@ -438,11 +438,20 @@ public void ignore() throws IOException {
    * Disconnect using {@link LowLevelHttpResponse#disconnect()}, then close the HTTP response
    * content using {@link #ignore}.
    *
+   * <p>The underlying connection is aborted first so that closing the response content in {@link
+   * #ignore} does not block to drain remaining response bytes (e.g. when only a small prefix of a
+   * large response was read). Any {@link IOException} from {@link #ignore} after an abort is
+   * expected and silently swallowed.
+   *
    * @since 1.4
    */
   public void disconnect() throws IOException {
-    ignore();
     response.disconnect();
+    try {
+      ignore();
+    } catch (IOException e) {
+      // Expected when the connection was aborted before content was fully consumed.
+    }
   }
 
   /**