diff --git a/docs/changes.rst b/docs/changes.rst
index 3925a1c4..6fca3cbf 100644
--- a/docs/changes.rst
+++ b/docs/changes.rst
@@ -13,7 +13,9 @@ v0.10.0 (in development)
 
 **Bug fixes**
 
-- None yet
+- :issue:`256`: Fix crash caused by non-ASCII characters in paths returned from
+  ``glib``. The bug can be worked around by overriding the settings that
+  includes offending `$XDG_` variables.
 
 
 v0.9.0 (2012-11-21)
diff --git a/mopidy/utils/path.py b/mopidy/utils/path.py
index 0c06eedd..a9216764 100644
--- a/mopidy/utils/path.py
+++ b/mopidy/utils/path.py
@@ -17,9 +17,10 @@ DATA_PATH = os.path.join(str(glib.get_user_data_dir()), 'mopidy')
 SETTINGS_PATH = os.path.join(str(glib.get_user_config_dir()), 'mopidy')
 SETTINGS_FILE = os.path.join(SETTINGS_PATH, 'settings.py')
 XDG_DIRS = {
-    'XDG_CACHE_DIR': glib.get_user_cache_dir(),
-    'XDG_DATA_DIR': glib.get_user_data_dir(),
-    'XDG_MUSIC_DIR': glib.get_user_special_dir(glib.USER_DIRECTORY_MUSIC),
+    'XDG_CACHE_DIR': glib.get_user_cache_dir().decode('utf-8'),
+    'XDG_DATA_DIR': glib.get_user_data_dir().decode('utf-8'),
+    'XDG_MUSIC_DIR': (
+        glib.get_user_special_dir(glib.USER_DIRECTORY_MUSIC).decode('utf-8')),
 }