diff --git a/src/Normalizer/FileEntityNormalizer.php b/src/Normalizer/FileEntityNormalizer.php
index 8ef1524..d6a95eb 100644
--- a/src/Normalizer/FileEntityNormalizer.php
+++ b/src/Normalizer/FileEntityNormalizer.php
@@ -38,9 +38,10 @@ public function normalize($entity, $format = NULL, array $context = array()) {
     if (!isset($context['included_fields']) || in_array('data', $context['included_fields'])) {
       // Save base64-encoded file contents to the "data" property.
       $file_data = base64_encode(file_get_contents($entity->getFileUri()));
-      $data += array(
-        'data' => array(array('value' => $file_data)),
-      );
+      // @todo these lined commented to stop entire file add to api response
+      // $data += array(
+      //   'data' => array(array('value' => $file_data)),
+      // );
     }
     return $data;
   }
@@ -52,8 +53,13 @@ public function denormalize($data, $class, $format = NULL, array $context = arra
     // Avoid 'data' being treated as a field.
     $file_data = $data['data'][0]['value'];
     unset($data['data']);
+    // If the file is not base64 encoded do something else
+    if ( strpos($file_data, 'http') === 0 ) {
+      $file_contents = file_get_contents($file_data);
+    } else {
+      $file_contents = base64_decode($file_data);
+    }
     // Decode and save to file.
-    $file_contents = base64_decode($file_data);
     $entity = parent::denormalize($data, $class, $format, $context);
     $dirname = drupal_dirname($entity->getFileUri());
     file_prepare_directory($dirname, FILE_CREATE_DIRECTORY);