diff --git a/src/common/connection.py b/src/common/connection.py
index da034abc1..6a2f11456 100644
--- a/src/common/connection.py
+++ b/src/common/connection.py
@@ -294,7 +294,8 @@ class CommonConnection:
             else:
                 def encrypt_thread(msg, keyID, always_trust=False):
                     # encrypt message. This function returns (msgenc, error)
-                    return self.gpg.encrypt(msg, [keyID], always_trust)
+                    return self.gpg.encrypt(msg.encode('utf-8'), [keyID],
+                        always_trust)
                 def _on_encrypted(output):
                     msgenc, error = output
                     if error == 'NOT_TRUSTED':
diff --git a/src/common/connection_handlers.py b/src/common/connection_handlers.py
index 5a78c3331..c0e1c9ddf 100644
--- a/src/common/connection_handlers.py
+++ b/src/common/connection_handlers.py
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@ import sys
 import operator
 import hashlib
 import gobject
+import locale
 
 from time import (altzone, daylight, gmtime, localtime, mktime, strftime,
         time as time_time, timezone, tzname)
@@ -1157,7 +1158,8 @@ class ConnectionHandlersBase:
         decmsg = self.gpg.decrypt(encmsg, keyID)
         decmsg = self.connection.Dispatcher.replace_non_character(decmsg)
         # \x00 chars are not allowed in C (so in GTK)
-        obj.msgtxt = helpers.decode_string(decmsg.replace('\x00', ''))
+        obj.msgtxt = decmsg.replace('\x00', '').encode(
+            locale.getpreferredencoding()).decode('utf-8')
         obj.encrypted = 'xep27'
         self.gpg_messages_to_decrypt.remove([encmsg, keyID, obj])
 
diff --git a/src/common/gpg.py b/src/common/gpg.py
index 0cca079a4..2f7957626 100644
--- a/src/common/gpg.py
+++ b/src/common/gpg.py
@@ -31,7 +31,6 @@ if HAVE_GPG:
     class GnuPG(gnupg.GPG):
         def __init__(self, use_agent=False):
             gnupg.GPG.__init__(self)
-            gnupg.GPG.decode_errors = 'replace'
             self.passphrase = None
             self.use_agent = use_agent
             self.always_trust = False