diff --git a/frappe/app.py b/frappe/app.py
index 76018e391e..f8fed3b22a 100644
--- a/frappe/app.py
+++ b/frappe/app.py
@@ -143,11 +143,11 @@ def serve(port=8000, profile=False, site=None, sites_path='.'):
 
 	if not os.environ.get('NO_STATICS'):
 		application = SharedDataMiddleware(application, {
-			'/assets': os.path.join(sites_path, 'assets'),
+			b'/assets': os.path.join(sites_path, 'assets').encode("utf-8"),
 		})
 
 		application = StaticDataMiddleware(application, {
-			'/files': os.path.abspath(sites_path)
+			b'/files': os.path.abspath(sites_path).encode("utf-8")
 		})
 
 	run_simple('0.0.0.0', int(port), application, use_reloader=True,
diff --git a/frappe/utils/file_manager.py b/frappe/utils/file_manager.py
index 2e4f31e32f..e6a61789ed 100644
--- a/frappe/utils/file_manager.py
+++ b/frappe/utils/file_manager.py
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ import frappe
 import os, base64, re
 import hashlib
 import mimetypes
-from frappe.utils import get_site_path, get_hook_method, get_files_path, random_string
+from frappe.utils import get_site_path, get_hook_method, get_files_path, random_string, encode, cstr
 from frappe import _
 from frappe import conf
 from copy import copy
@@ -258,8 +258,11 @@ def get_content_hash(content):
 	return hashlib.md5(content).hexdigest()
 
 def get_file_name(fname, optional_suffix):
+	# convert to unicode
+	fname = cstr(fname)
+
 	n_records = frappe.db.sql("select name from `tabFile Data` where file_name=%s", fname)
-	if len(n_records) > 0 or os.path.exists(get_files_path(fname).encode('utf-8')):
+	if len(n_records) > 0 or os.path.exists(encode(get_files_path(fname))):
 		f = fname.rsplit('.', 1)
 		if len(f) == 1:
 			partial, extn = f[0], ""