diff --git a/frappe/__init__.py b/frappe/__init__.py
index 1b8881a253..20c96e4c60 100644
--- a/frappe/__init__.py
+++ b/frappe/__init__.py
@@ -1470,6 +1470,15 @@ def get_version(doctype, name, limit = None, head = False, raise_err = True):
 def ping():
 	return "pong"
 
+
+def safe_encode(param, encoding = 'utf-8'):
+	try:
+		param = param.encode(encoding)
+	except Exception:
+		pass
+	return param
+
+
 def safe_decode(param, encoding = 'utf-8'):
 	try:
 		param = param.decode(encoding)
diff --git a/frappe/model/utils/user_settings.py b/frappe/model/utils/user_settings.py
index 2045e3a5b2..84ae3d9ee7 100644
--- a/frappe/model/utils/user_settings.py
+++ b/frappe/model/utils/user_settings.py
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ def update_user_settings(doctype, user_settings, for_update=False):
 def sync_user_settings():
 	'''Sync from cache to database (called asynchronously via the browser)'''
 	for key, data in iteritems(frappe.cache().hgetall('_user_settings')):
-		doctype, user = key.split('::')
+		doctype, user = frappe.safe_encode(key).split('::') # WTF?
 		frappe.db.sql('''insert into __UserSettings (user, doctype, data) values (%s, %s, %s)
 			on duplicate key update data=%s''', (user, doctype, data, data))