--- mackup-orig/mackup/config.py	2016-11-22 10:54:05.000000000 +0100
+++ mackup-0.8.15/mackup/config.py	2016-12-27 15:36:13.700938446 +0100
@@ -219,10 +219,11 @@
                                   " the 'file_system' engine is used.")

         # Python 2 and python 3 byte strings are different.
-        if sys.version_info[0] < 3:
-            path = str(path)
-        else:
-            path = path.decode("utf-8")
+        if not isinstance(path, str):
+            if sys.version_info[0] < 3:
+                path = str(path)
+            else:
+                path = path.decode("utf-8")

         return path