diff --git a/fdroidserver/update.py b/fdroidserver/update.py
index 0e0aef68..df2b71a4 100644
--- a/fdroidserver/update.py
+++ b/fdroidserver/update.py
@@ -1208,7 +1208,7 @@ def main():
     apkcachefile = os.path.join('tmp', 'apkcache')
     if not options.clean and os.path.exists(apkcachefile):
         with open(apkcachefile, 'rb') as cf:
-            apkcache = pickle.load(cf)
+            apkcache = pickle.load(cf, encoding='utf-8')
     else:
         apkcache = {}