diff --git a/kittens/transfer/algorithm.c b/kittens/transfer/algorithm.c
index 4c160260b..cf3e88562 100644
--- a/kittens/transfer/algorithm.c
+++ b/kittens/transfer/algorithm.c
@@ -901,13 +901,6 @@ PyTypeObject Hasher_Type = {
 };
 // }}} end Hasher
 
-static PyObject*
-decode_utf8_buffer(PyObject *self UNUSED, PyObject *args) {
-    RAII_PY_BUFFER(buf);
-    if (!PyArg_ParseTuple(args, "s*", &buf)) return NULL;
-    return PyUnicode_FromStringAndSize(buf.buf, buf.len);
-}
-
 static bool
 call_ftc_callback(PyObject *callback, char *src, Py_ssize_t key_start, Py_ssize_t key_length, Py_ssize_t val_start, Py_ssize_t val_length) {
     while(src[key_start] == ';' && key_length > 0 ) { key_start++; key_length--; }
@@ -952,7 +945,6 @@ parse_ftc(PyObject *self UNUSED, PyObject *args) {
 
 static PyMethodDef module_methods[] = {
     {"parse_ftc", parse_ftc, METH_VARARGS, ""},
-    {"decode_utf8_buffer", decode_utf8_buffer, METH_VARARGS, ""},
     {NULL, NULL, 0, NULL}        /* Sentinel */
 };
 
diff --git a/kittens/transfer/rsync.pyi b/kittens/transfer/rsync.pyi
index d565abe61..97182b494 100644
--- a/kittens/transfer/rsync.pyi
+++ b/kittens/transfer/rsync.pyi
@@ -42,5 +42,4 @@ class Differ:
     def next_op(self, read: Callable[[WriteBuffer], int], write: Callable[[ReadOnlyBuffer], None]) -> bool: ...
 
 
-def decode_utf8_buffer(x: ReadOnlyBuffer) -> str: ...
 def parse_ftc(x: Union[str, ReadOnlyBuffer], callback: Callable[[memoryview, memoryview], None]) -> None: ...
diff --git a/kitty/file_transmission.py b/kitty/file_transmission.py
index dbfc112ca..31be61916 100644
--- a/kitty/file_transmission.py
+++ b/kitty/file_transmission.py
@@ -329,14 +329,14 @@ class FileTransmissionCommand:
     def deserialize(cls, data: Union[str, bytes, memoryview]) -> 'FileTransmissionCommand':
         ans = FileTransmissionCommand()
         fmap = serialized_to_field_map()
-        from kittens.transfer.rsync import decode_utf8_buffer, parse_ftc
+        from kittens.transfer.rsync import parse_ftc
 
         def handle_item(key: memoryview, val: memoryview) -> None:
             field = fmap.get(key)
             if field is None:
                 return
             if issubclass(field.type, Enum):
-                setattr(ans, field.name, field.type[decode_utf8_buffer(val)])
+                setattr(ans, field.name, field.type[str(val, "utf-8")])
             elif field.type is bytes:
                 setattr(ans, field.name, base64_decode(val))
             elif field.type is int:
@@ -345,7 +345,7 @@ class FileTransmissionCommand:
                 if field.metadata.get('base64'):
                     sval = base64_decode(val).decode('utf-8')
                 else:
-                    sval = safe_string(decode_utf8_buffer(val))
+                    sval = safe_string(str(val, "utf-8"))
                 setattr(ans, field.name, sval)
 
         parse_ftc(data, handle_item)
diff --git a/kitty_tests/file_transmission.py b/kitty_tests/file_transmission.py
index 8fcb3e76d..85d8fe8fa 100644
--- a/kitty_tests/file_transmission.py
+++ b/kitty_tests/file_transmission.py
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ from collections import namedtuple
 from contextlib import contextmanager
 from pathlib import Path
 
-from kittens.transfer.rsync import Differ, Hasher, Patcher, decode_utf8_buffer, parse_ftc
+from kittens.transfer.rsync import Differ, Hasher, Patcher, parse_ftc
 from kittens.transfer.utils import set_paths
 from kitty.constants import kitten_exe
 from kitty.file_transmission import Action, Compression, FileTransmissionCommand, FileType, TransmissionType, ZlibDecompressor
@@ -307,8 +307,8 @@ class TestFileTransmission(BaseTest):
             a = []
 
             def c(k, v):
-                a.append(decode_utf8_buffer(k))
-                a.append(decode_utf8_buffer(v))
+                a.append(str(k, 'utf-8'))
+                a.append(str(v, 'utf-8'))
 
             parse_ftc(raw, c)
             self.ae(tuple(a), expected)