diff --git a/src/main/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/imports/ImportControlCheck.java b/src/main/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/imports/ImportControlCheck.java
index 65b72d197..a28bb0c4e 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/imports/ImportControlCheck.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/imports/ImportControlCheck.java
@@ -187,7 +187,9 @@ public class ImportControlCheck extends AbstractCheck implements ExternalResourc
      * configuration. It will cause the url to be loaded.
      * @param url the url of the file to load.
      * @throws ConversionException on error loading the file.
+     * @deprecated use {@link #setFile(String name)} to load URLs instead
      */
+    @Deprecated
     public void setUrl(final String url) {
         // Handle empty param
         if (!CommonUtils.isBlank(url)) {
diff --git a/src/xdocs/config_imports.xml b/src/xdocs/config_imports.xml
index 0b253ef04..23c386b74 100644
--- a/src/xdocs/config_imports.xml
+++ b/src/xdocs/config_imports.xml
@@ -717,6 +717,8 @@ import android.*;
             <td>url</td>
             <td>
               URL of the file containing the import control configuration.
+              This property is deprecated. Please use the file property to load configurations
+              from URLs.
             </td>
             <td><a href="property_types.html#string">string</a></td>
             <td><code>null</code></td>