diff --git a/impl/src/java/org/sakaiproject/shortenedurl/impl/ShortenedInterceptor.java b/impl/src/java/org/sakaiproject/shortenedurl/impl/ShortenedInterceptor.java
index ea58c75..5c4e9d8 100644
--- a/impl/src/java/org/sakaiproject/shortenedurl/impl/ShortenedInterceptor.java
+++ b/impl/src/java/org/sakaiproject/shortenedurl/impl/ShortenedInterceptor.java
@@ -41,7 +41,8 @@ public void init() {
     }
 
     public boolean isUrlHandled(String url) {
-        URI uri = URI.create(url);
+        // generally the stored URLs are not encoded correctly, manually encode spaces as a quick fix
+        URI uri = URI.create(url.replace(" ", "%20"));
         return (isLocalUri(uri) && PATH_PATTERN.matcher(uri.getPath()).matches());
     }