diff --git a/satpy/readers/hdf5_utils.py b/satpy/readers/hdf5_utils.py
index e42a480d9b..463d91336c 100644
--- a/satpy/readers/hdf5_utils.py
+++ b/satpy/readers/hdf5_utils.py
@@ -59,7 +59,11 @@ def __init__(self, filename, filename_info, filetype_info):
     def _collect_attrs(self, name, attrs):
         for key, value in six.iteritems(attrs):
             value = np.squeeze(value)
-            self.file_content["{}/attr/{}".format(name, key)] = np2str(value)
+            fc_key = "{}/attr/{}".format(name, key)
+            try:
+                self.file_content[fc_key] = np2str(value)
+            except ValueError:
+                self.file_content[fc_key] = value
 
     def collect_metadata(self, name, obj):
         if isinstance(obj, h5py.Dataset):
diff --git a/satpy/readers/helper_functions.py b/satpy/readers/helper_functions.py
index c3d978316f..9c0a2c54fe 100644
--- a/satpy/readers/helper_functions.py
+++ b/satpy/readers/helper_functions.py
@@ -33,14 +33,26 @@
 
 
 def np2str(value):
-    """Convert an np.string_ to str."""
-    if issubclass(value.dtype.type, np.string_):
+    """Convert an `numpy.string_` to str.
+
+    Args:
+        value (ndarray): scalar or 1-element numpy array to convert
+
+    Raises:
+        ValueError: if value is array larger than 1-element or it is not of
+                    type np.string_ or it is not a numpy array
+
+    """
+    if hasattr(value, 'dtype') and \
+            issubclass(value.dtype.type, np.string_) and value.size == 1:
         value = np.asscalar(value)
         if not isinstance(value, str):
             # python 3 - was scalar numpy array of bytes
             # otherwise python 2 - scalar numpy array of 'str'
             value = value.decode()
-    return value
+        return value
+    else:
+        raise ValueError("Array is not a string type or is larger than 1")
 
 
 def get_geostationary_angle_extent(geos_area):