diff --git a/src/fs_utils.cpp b/src/fs_utils.cpp
index 8590c0a0f..7bb0f656f 100644
--- a/src/fs_utils.cpp
+++ b/src/fs_utils.cpp
@@ -445,6 +445,9 @@ QString fsutils::QDesktopServicesDownloadLocation() {
   QString user_dirs_file = config_path + "/user-dirs.dirs";
   if (QFile::exists(user_dirs_file)) {
     QSettings settings(user_dirs_file, QSettings::IniFormat);
+    // We need to force UTF-8 encoding here since this is not
+    // the default for Ini files.
+    settings.setIniCodec("UTF-8");
     QString xdg_download_dir = settings.value("XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR").toString();
     if (!xdg_download_dir.isEmpty()) {
       // Resolve $HOME environment variables