diff --git a/openlp/core/lib/__init__.py b/openlp/core/lib/__init__.py
index 0439fc156..fe7cef4b2 100644
--- a/openlp/core/lib/__init__.py
+++ b/openlp/core/lib/__init__.py
@@ -90,7 +90,7 @@ def get_text_file_string(text_file):
     file_handle = None
     content = None
     try:
-        file_handle = open(text_file, 'r')
+        file_handle = open(text_file, 'r', encoding='utf-8')
         if not file_handle.read(3) == '\xEF\xBB\xBF':
             # no BOM was found
             file_handle.seek(0)
diff --git a/openlp/core/ui/thememanager.py b/openlp/core/ui/thememanager.py
index 0db4b12a7..9f8d0bfe0 100644
--- a/openlp/core/ui/thememanager.py
+++ b/openlp/core/ui/thememanager.py
@@ -354,8 +354,12 @@ class ThemeManager(OpenLPMixin, RegistryMixin, QtGui.QWidget, Ui_ThemeManager, R
         delete_file(os.path.join(self.path, thumb))
         delete_file(os.path.join(self.thumb_path, thumb))
         try:
-            encoding = get_filesystem_encoding()
-            shutil.rmtree(os.path.join(self.path, theme).encode(encoding))
+            # Windows is always unicode, so no need to encode filenames
+            if is_win():
+                shutil.rmtree(os.path.join(self.path, theme))
+            else:
+                encoding = get_filesystem_encoding()
+                shutil.rmtree(os.path.join(self.path, theme).encode(encoding))
         except OSError as os_error:
             shutil.Error = os_error
             self.log_exception('Error deleting theme %s' % theme)
@@ -567,7 +571,7 @@ class ThemeManager(OpenLPMixin, RegistryMixin, QtGui.QWidget, Ui_ThemeManager, R
                 check_directory_exists(os.path.dirname(full_name))
                 if os.path.splitext(name)[1].lower() == '.xml':
                     file_xml = str(theme_zip.read(name), 'utf-8')
-                    out_file = open(full_name, 'w')
+                    out_file = open(full_name, 'w', encoding='utf-8')
                     out_file.write(file_xml)
                 else:
                     out_file = open(full_name, 'wb')
@@ -645,8 +649,8 @@ class ThemeManager(OpenLPMixin, RegistryMixin, QtGui.QWidget, Ui_ThemeManager, R
             delete_file(self.old_background_image)
         out_file = None
         try:
-            out_file = open(theme_file, 'w')
-            out_file.write(theme_pretty_xml.decode('UTF-8'))
+            out_file = open(theme_file, 'w', encoding='utf-8')
+            out_file.write(theme_pretty_xml.decode('utf-8'))
         except IOError:
             self.log_exception('Saving theme to file failed')
         finally:
diff --git a/tests/functional/openlp_core_lib/test_lib.py b/tests/functional/openlp_core_lib/test_lib.py
index 98c31d7be..9fc1fa3ff 100644
--- a/tests/functional/openlp_core_lib/test_lib.py
+++ b/tests/functional/openlp_core_lib/test_lib.py
@@ -176,7 +176,7 @@ class TestLib(TestCase):
 
             # THEN: None should be returned
             mocked_isfile.assert_called_with(filename)
-            mocked_open.assert_called_with(filename, 'r')
+            mocked_open.assert_called_with(filename, 'r', encoding='utf-8')
             self.assertIsNone(result, 'None should be returned if the file cannot be opened')
 
     def get_text_file_string_decode_error_test(self):
diff --git a/tests/functional/openlp_core_ui/test_thememanager.py b/tests/functional/openlp_core_ui/test_thememanager.py
index 85d470e4f..3dc168f77 100644
--- a/tests/functional/openlp_core_ui/test_thememanager.py
+++ b/tests/functional/openlp_core_ui/test_thememanager.py
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ from unittest import TestCase
 from tempfile import mkdtemp
 
 from PyQt4 import QtGui
+from tempfile import mkdtemp
 
 from openlp.core.ui import ThemeManager
 from openlp.core.common import Registry
@@ -44,6 +45,13 @@ class TestThemeManager(TestCase):
         Set up the tests
         """
         Registry.create()
+        self.temp_folder = mkdtemp()
+
+    def tearDown(self):
+        """
+        Clean up
+        """
+        shutil.rmtree(self.temp_folder)
 
     def export_theme_test(self):
         """
@@ -131,6 +139,27 @@ class TestThemeManager(TestCase):
             # THEN: The mocked_copyfile should not have been called
             self.assertTrue(mocked_copyfile.called, 'shutil.copyfile should be called')
 
+    def write_theme_special_char_name_test(self):
+        """
+        Test that we can save themes with special characters in the name
+        """
+        # GIVEN: A new theme manager instance, with mocked theme and thememanager-attributes.
+        theme_manager = ThemeManager(None)
+        theme_manager.old_background_image = None
+        theme_manager.generate_and_save_image = MagicMock()
+        theme_manager.path = self.temp_folder
+        mocked_theme = MagicMock()
+        mocked_theme.theme_name = 'theme 愛 name'
+        mocked_theme.extract_formatted_xml = MagicMock()
+        mocked_theme.extract_formatted_xml.return_value = 'fake theme 愛 XML'.encode()
+
+        # WHEN: Calling _write_theme with a theme with a name with special characters in it
+        theme_manager._write_theme(mocked_theme, None, None)
+
+        # THEN: It should have been created
+        self.assertTrue(os.path.exists(os.path.join(self.temp_folder, 'theme 愛 name', 'theme 愛 name.xml')),
+                        'Theme with special characters should have been created!')
+
     def over_write_message_box_yes_test(self):
         """
         Test that theme_manager.over_write_message_box returns True when the user clicks yes.