diff -ru a/modules/file_entity/src/Normalizer/FileEntityNormalizer.php b/modules/file_entity/src/Normalizer/FileEntityNormalizer.php
--- a/modules/file_entity/src/Normalizer/FileEntityNormalizer.php	2017-12-15 12:36:56.000000000 +0100
+++ b/modules/file_entity/src/Normalizer/FileEntityNormalizer.php	2017-12-15 12:38:14.000000000 +0100
@@ -48,6 +48,7 @@
     else {
       throw new \RuntimeException(SafeMarkup::format('Failed to write @filename.', array('@filename' => $entity->getFilename())));
     }
+    $entity->status = FILE_STATUS_PERMANENT;
     return $entity;
   }
 }