diff --git a/gramps/gui/viewmanager.py b/gramps/gui/viewmanager.py
index 2eac42a08..fe71a3e90 100644
--- a/gramps/gui/viewmanager.py
+++ b/gramps/gui/viewmanager.py
@@ -1300,7 +1300,8 @@ class ViewManager(CLIManager):
             basefile = file_entry.get_text()
             basefile = basefile.replace("/", r"-")
             filename = os.path.join(path_entry.get_text(), basefile)
-            filename = filename.encode(glocale.getfilesystemencoding())
+            if sys.version_info[0] < 3:
+                filename = filename.encode(glocale.getfilesystemencoding())
             if os.path.exists(filename):
                 sfilename = get_unicode_path_from_env_var(filename)
                 question = QuestionDialog2(