diff --git a/plexpy/log_reader.py b/plexpy/log_reader.py
index 259e2cc4..bb1d0186 100644
--- a/plexpy/log_reader.py
+++ b/plexpy/log_reader.py
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ def get_log_tail(window=20, parsed=True, log_type="server"):
         return []
 
     try:
-        logfile = open(log_file, "r")
+        logfile = open(log_file, "r", encoding="utf-8")
     except IOError as e:
         logger.error('Unable to open Plex Log file. %s' % e)
         return []
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ def get_log_tail(window=20, parsed=True, log_type="server"):
             try:
                 log_time = i.split(' [')[0]
                 log_level = i.split('] ', 1)[1].split(' - ', 1)[0]
-                log_msg = str(i.split('] ', 1)[1].split(' - ', 1)[1], 'utf-8')
+                log_msg = i.split('] ', 1)[1].split(' - ', 1)[1]
                 full_line = [log_time, log_level, log_msg]
                 clean_lines.append(full_line)
             except:
diff --git a/plexpy/logger.py b/plexpy/logger.py
index 989b2e87..ca87544b 100644
--- a/plexpy/logger.py
+++ b/plexpy/logger.py
@@ -264,7 +264,7 @@ def initLogger(console=False, log_dir=False, verbose=False):
 
         # Main Tautulli logger
         filename = os.path.join(log_dir, FILENAME)
-        file_handler = handlers.RotatingFileHandler(filename, maxBytes=MAX_SIZE, backupCount=MAX_FILES)
+        file_handler = handlers.RotatingFileHandler(filename, maxBytes=MAX_SIZE, backupCount=MAX_FILES, encoding='utf-8')
         file_handler.setLevel(logging.DEBUG)
         file_handler.setFormatter(file_formatter)
 
@@ -272,7 +272,7 @@ def initLogger(console=False, log_dir=False, verbose=False):
 
         # Tautulli API logger
         filename = os.path.join(log_dir, FILENAME_API)
-        file_handler = handlers.RotatingFileHandler(filename, maxBytes=MAX_SIZE, backupCount=MAX_FILES)
+        file_handler = handlers.RotatingFileHandler(filename, maxBytes=MAX_SIZE, backupCount=MAX_FILES, encoding='utf-8')
         file_handler.setLevel(logging.DEBUG)
         file_handler.setFormatter(file_formatter)
 
@@ -280,7 +280,7 @@ def initLogger(console=False, log_dir=False, verbose=False):
 
         # Tautulli websocket logger
         filename = os.path.join(log_dir, FILENAME_PLEX_WEBSOCKET)
-        file_handler = handlers.RotatingFileHandler(filename, maxBytes=MAX_SIZE, backupCount=MAX_FILES)
+        file_handler = handlers.RotatingFileHandler(filename, maxBytes=MAX_SIZE, backupCount=MAX_FILES, encoding='utf-8')
         file_handler.setLevel(logging.DEBUG)
         file_handler.setFormatter(file_formatter)
 
diff --git a/plexpy/webserve.py b/plexpy/webserve.py
index 1f4e3320..5543b16c 100644
--- a/plexpy/webserve.py
+++ b/plexpy/webserve.py
@@ -2370,18 +2370,18 @@ class WebInterface(object):
         else:
             filename = logger.FILENAME
 
-        with open(os.path.join(plexpy.CONFIG.LOG_DIR, filename)) as f:
+        with open(os.path.join(plexpy.CONFIG.LOG_DIR, filename), 'r', encoding='utf-8') as f:
             for l in f.readlines():
                 try:
                     temp_loglevel_and_time = l.split(' - ', 1)
                     loglvl = temp_loglevel_and_time[1].split(' ::', 1)[0].strip()
-                    msg = helpers.sanitize(str(l.split(' : ', 1)[1].replace('\n', ''), 'utf-8'))
+                    msg = helpers.sanitize(l.split(' : ', 1)[1].replace('\n', ''))
                     fa([temp_loglevel_and_time[0], loglvl, msg])
                 except IndexError:
                     # Add traceback message to previous msg.
                     tl = (len(filt) - 1)
                     n = len(l) - len(l.lstrip(' '))
-                    ll = ' ' * (2 * n) + helpers.sanitize(str(l[n:], 'utf-8'))
+                    ll = ' ' * (2 * n) + helpers.sanitize(l[n:])
                     filt[tl][2] += '<br>' + ll
                     continue
 
@@ -2705,7 +2705,7 @@ class WebInterface(object):
             filename = logger.FILENAME
 
         try:
-            with open(os.path.join(plexpy.CONFIG.LOG_DIR, filename), 'r') as f:
+            with open(os.path.join(plexpy.CONFIG.LOG_DIR, filename), 'r', encoding='utf-8') as f:
                 return '<pre>%s</pre>' % f.read()
         except IOError as e:
             return "Log file not found."