diff --git a/resources/lib/playlists.py b/resources/lib/playlists.py
index a340f575..23b013ee 100644
--- a/resources/lib/playlists.py
+++ b/resources/lib/playlists.py
@@ -180,7 +180,7 @@ def m3u_to_plex_ids(playlist):
     Adapter to process *.m3u playlist files. Encoding is not uniform!
     """
     plex_ids = list()
-    with open(playlist.kodi_path, 'rb') as f:
+    with open(utils.encode_path(playlist.kodi_path), 'rb') as f:
         text = f.read()
     try:
         text = text.decode(ENCODING)
@@ -218,7 +218,7 @@ def _write_playlist_to_file(playlist, xml):
     text += '\n'
     text = text.encode(ENCODING, 'ignore')
     try:
-        with open(playlist.kodi_path, 'wb') as f:
+        with open(utils.encode_path(playlist.kodi_path), 'wb') as f:
             f.write(text)
     except (OSError, IOError) as err:
         LOG.error('Could not write Kodi playlist file: %s', playlist)
@@ -361,8 +361,10 @@ def _full_sync():
     if state.ENABLE_MUSIC:
         master_paths.append(v.PLAYLIST_PATH_MUSIC)
     for master_path in master_paths:
-        for root, _, files in os.walk(master_path):
+        for root, _, files in os.walk(utils.encode_path(master_path)):
+            root = utils.decode_path(root)
             for file in files:
+                file = utils.decode_path(file)
                 try:
                     extension = file.rsplit('.', 1)[1]
                 except IndexError:
diff --git a/resources/lib/plex_api.py b/resources/lib/plex_api.py
index 5bec86c5..f913887c 100644
--- a/resources/lib/plex_api.py
+++ b/resources/lib/plex_api.py
@@ -1410,14 +1410,8 @@ class API(object):
             return
         else:
             LOG.debug('Writing temp subtitle to %s', path)
-            try:
-                with open(path, 'wb') as filer:
-                    filer.write(response.content)
-            except UnicodeEncodeError:
-                LOG.debug('Need to slugify the filename %s', path)
-                path = utils.slugify(path)
-                with open(path, 'wb') as filer:
-                    filer.write(response.content)
+            with open(utils.encode_path(path), 'wb') as filer:
+                filer.write(response.content)
             return path
 
     def kodi_premiere_date(self):
diff --git a/resources/lib/utils.py b/resources/lib/utils.py
index a2f96dc9..d2b08486 100644
--- a/resources/lib/utils.py
+++ b/resources/lib/utils.py
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ import hashlib
 import re
 import unicodedata
 
+from .watchdog.utils import unicode_paths
 from . import variables as v
 from . import state
 
@@ -117,7 +118,7 @@ def exists_dir(path):
     else:
         dummyfile = os.path.join(try_decode(path), 'dummyfile.txt')
         try:
-            with open(dummyfile, 'w') as filer:
+            with open(encode_path(dummyfile), 'w') as filer:
                 filer.write('text')
         except IOError:
             # folder does not exist yet
@@ -247,6 +248,26 @@ def kodi_time_to_millis(time):
     return ret
 
 
+def encode_path(path):
+    """
+    Filenames and paths are not necessarily utf-8 encoded. Use this function
+    instead of try_encode/trydecode if working with filenames and paths!
+    (os.walk only feeds on encoded paths. sys.getfilesystemencoding returns None
+    for Raspberry Pi)
+    """
+    return unicode_paths.encode(path)
+
+
+def decode_path(path):
+    """
+    Filenames and paths are not necessarily utf-8 encoded. Use this function
+    instead of try_encode/trydecode if working with filenames and paths!
+    (os.walk only feeds on encoded paths. sys.getfilesystemencoding returns None
+    for Raspberry Pi)
+    """
+    return unicode_paths.decode(path)
+
+
 def try_encode(input_str, encoding='utf-8'):
     """
     Will try to encode input_str (in unicode) to encoding. This possibly
@@ -998,7 +1019,7 @@ def playlist_xsp(mediatype, tagname, viewid, viewtype="", delete=False):
         'show': 'tvshows'
     }
     LOG.info("Writing playlist file to: %s", xsppath)
-    with open(xsppath, 'wb') as filer:
+    with open(encode_path(xsppath), 'wb') as filer:
         filer.write(try_encode(
             '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes" ?>\n'
             '<smartplaylist type="%s">\n\t'
@@ -1022,6 +1043,7 @@ def delete_playlists():
             if file.startswith('Plex'):
                 os.remove(os.path.join(root, file))
 
+
 def delete_nodes():
     """
     Clean up video nodes
@@ -1043,7 +1065,7 @@ def generate_file_md5(path):
     """
     m = hashlib.md5()
     m.update(path.encode('utf-8'))
-    with open(path, 'rb') as f:
+    with open(encode_path(path), 'rb') as f:
         while True:
             piece = f.read(32768)
             if not piece: