diff --git a/mezzanine/core/templatetags/mezzanine_tags.py b/mezzanine/core/templatetags/mezzanine_tags.py
index 51ae257a6e..238a67ddd5 100644
--- a/mezzanine/core/templatetags/mezzanine_tags.py
+++ b/mezzanine/core/templatetags/mezzanine_tags.py
@@ -119,10 +119,19 @@ def thumbnail(image_url, width, height):
     thumb_url = "%s/%s/%s" % (os.path.dirname(image_url),
                               settings.THUMBNAILS_DIR_NAME, thumb_name)
 
-    # Abort if thumbnail exists or original image doesn't exist.
-    if os.path.exists(thumb_path):
+    try:
+        thumb_exists = os.path.exists(thumb_path)
+    except UnicodeEncodeError:
+        # The image that was saved to a filesystem with utf-8 support,
+        # but somehow the locale has changed and the filesystem does not
+        # support utf-8.
+        from mezzanine.core.exceptions import FileSystemEncodingChanged
+        raise FileSystemEncodingChanged()
+    if thumb_exists:
+        # Thumbnail exists, don't generate it.
         return thumb_url
     elif not default_storage.exists(image_url):
+        # Requested image does not exist, just return its URL.
         return image_url
 
     image = Image.open(default_storage.open(image_url))
diff --git a/mezzanine/galleries/models.py b/mezzanine/galleries/models.py
index d5da18f617..b754718434 100644
--- a/mezzanine/galleries/models.py
+++ b/mezzanine/galleries/models.py
@@ -59,9 +59,19 @@ def save(self, delete_zip_import=True, *args, **kwargs):
                     image.verify()
                 except:
                     continue
-                path = default_storage.save(os.path.join(GALLERIES_UPLOAD_DIR,
-                          self.slug, name.decode("utf-8")), ContentFile(data))
-                self.images.add(GalleryImage(file=path))
+                path = os.path.join(GALLERIES_UPLOAD_DIR, self.slug,
+                                    name.decode("utf-8"))
+                try:
+                    saved_path = default_storage.save(path, ContentFile(data))
+                except UnicodeEncodeError:
+                    from warnings import warn
+                    warn("Your filesystem encoding doesn't seem to support "
+                         "utf-8. You may need to set LC_CTYPE to a correct "
+                         "value via your terminal, eg: en_US.utf8")
+                    path = os.path.join(GALLERIES_UPLOAD_DIR, self.slug,
+                                        unicode(name, errors="ignore"))
+                    saved_path = default_storage.save(path, ContentFile(data))
+                self.images.add(GalleryImage(file=saved_path))
             if delete_zip_import:
                 zip_file.close()
                 self.zip_import.delete(save=True)