diff --git a/frappe/utils/help.py b/frappe/utils/help.py
index 45971820c0..df6bfb884a 100644
--- a/frappe/utils/help.py
+++ b/frappe/utils/help.py
@@ -15,6 +15,8 @@ from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
 import jinja2.exceptions
 from six import text_type
 
+import io
+
 def sync():
 	# make table
 	print('Syncing help database...')
@@ -135,9 +137,9 @@ class HelpDatabase(object):
 					for fname in files:
 						if fname.rsplit('.', 1)[-1] in ('md', 'html'):
 							fpath = os.path.join(basepath, fname)
-							with open(fpath, 'r') as f:
+							with io.open(fpath, 'r', encoding = 'utf-8') as f:
 								try:
-									content = frappe.render_template(text_type(f.read(), 'utf-8'),
+									content = frappe.render_template(f.read(),
 										{'docs_base_url': '/assets/{app}_docs'.format(app=app)})
 
 									relpath = self.get_out_path(fpath)