diff --git a/admin/environment.xml b/admin/environment.xml
index 3a1b469cb1e..a901cca182a 100644
--- a/admin/environment.xml
+++ b/admin/environment.xml
@@ -1969,6 +1969,7 @@
       <PHP_EXTENSION name="json" level="required">
       </PHP_EXTENSION>
       <PHP_EXTENSION name="hash" level="required"/>
+      <PHP_EXTENSION name="fileinfo" level="required"/>
     </PHP_EXTENSIONS>
     <PHP_SETTINGS>
       <PHP_SETTING name="memory_limit" value="96M" level="required">
@@ -2043,11 +2044,6 @@
           <ON_CHECK message="incompleteunicodesupport" />
         </FEEDBACK>
       </CUSTOM_CHECK>
-      <CUSTOM_CHECK file="lib/upgradelib.php" function="check_finfo" level="required">
-        <FEEDBACK>
-          <ON_ERROR message="finforequired" />
-        </FEEDBACK>
-      </CUSTOM_CHECK>
     </CUSTOM_CHECKS>
   </MOODLE>
 </COMPATIBILITY_MATRIX>
diff --git a/lang/en/admin.php b/lang/en/admin.php
index b232d67d057..e78e4b5ef52 100644
--- a/lang/en/admin.php
+++ b/lang/en/admin.php
@@ -599,7 +599,6 @@ $string['iplookupinfo'] = 'By default Moodle uses the free online NetGeo (The In
 It is recommended to install local copy of free GeoLite City database from MaxMind.<br />
 IP address location is displayed on simple map or using Google Maps. Please note that you need to have a Google account and apply for free Google Maps API key to enable interactive maps.';
 $string['iplookupmaxmindnote'] = 'This product includes GeoLite data created by MaxMind, available from <a href="http://www.maxmind.com/">http://www.maxmind.com/</a>.';
-$string['finforequired'] = 'The finfo PHP extension is now required by Moodle, in order to improve mimetype decoding.';
 $string['keeptagnamecase'] = 'Keep tag name casing';
 $string['lang'] = 'Default language';
 $string['langcache'] = 'Cache language menu';
diff --git a/lib/upgradelib.php b/lib/upgradelib.php
index 6c6f11856da..54001fc90ee 100644
--- a/lib/upgradelib.php
+++ b/lib/upgradelib.php
@@ -2479,20 +2479,3 @@ function check_libcurl_version(environment_results $result) {
 
     return null;
 }
-
-/**
- * Check if the finfo class is present.
- *
- * @param environment_results $result object to update, if relevant.
- * @return environment_results|null updated results or null.
- */
-function check_finfo(environment_results $result) {
-    if (!class_exists('finfo')) {
-        $result->setInfo('finfo extension not enabled');
-        $result->setStatus(false);
-
-        return $result;
-    }
-
-    return null;
-}