diff --git a/packages/playground/assets/index.html b/packages/playground/assets/index.html
index cc0b8fd33c8250..01307801abc054 100644
--- a/packages/playground/assets/index.html
+++ b/packages/playground/assets/index.html
@@ -13,6 +13,9 @@ <h2>Raw References from publicDir</h2>
   <li class="raw-css">
     Raw CSS from publicDir should load (this should be red)
   </li>
+  <li>
+    <img src="/white space.png" />
+  </li>
 </ul>
 
 <h2>Asset Imports from JS</h2>
diff --git a/packages/playground/assets/static/white space.png b/packages/playground/assets/static/white space.png
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..4388bfdca3d4d7
Binary files /dev/null and b/packages/playground/assets/static/white space.png differ
diff --git a/packages/vite/src/node/server/index.ts b/packages/vite/src/node/server/index.ts
index 8cd0ba158c4eb2..538994c2903941 100644
--- a/packages/vite/src/node/server/index.ts
+++ b/packages/vite/src/node/server/index.ts
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ import {
   indexHtmlMiddleware
 } from './middlewares/indexHtml'
 import history from 'connect-history-api-fallback'
+import { decodeURIMiddleware } from './middlewares/decodeURI'
 import {
   serveRawFsMiddleware,
   servePublicMiddleware,
@@ -416,6 +417,9 @@ export async function createServer(
   // hmr reconnect ping
   middlewares.use('/__vite_ping', (_, res) => res.end('pong'))
 
+  //decode request url
+  middlewares.use(decodeURIMiddleware())
+
   // serve static files under /public
   // this applies before the transform middleware so that these files are served
   // as-is without transforms.
diff --git a/packages/vite/src/node/server/middlewares/decodeURI.ts b/packages/vite/src/node/server/middlewares/decodeURI.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..b44a66f8be3ee1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/vite/src/node/server/middlewares/decodeURI.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+import { Connect } from 'types/connect'
+
+export function decodeURIMiddleware(): Connect.NextHandleFunction {
+  return (req, _, next) => {
+    // #2195
+    req.url = decodeURI(req.url!)
+
+    // `sirv` middleware uses the req._parsedUrl values to find the file,
+    // so decode it all together.
+    // @ts-ignore
+    const parsedUrl = req._parsedUrl
+    for (const key of Object.keys(parsedUrl)) {
+      const val = parsedUrl[key]
+      if (val) parsedUrl[key] = decodeURI(val)
+    }
+    next()
+  }
+}
diff --git a/packages/vite/src/node/server/middlewares/static.ts b/packages/vite/src/node/server/middlewares/static.ts
index 38916d252a0b5c..fe0ebaadd435d1 100644
--- a/packages/vite/src/node/server/middlewares/static.ts
+++ b/packages/vite/src/node/server/middlewares/static.ts
@@ -36,9 +36,6 @@ export function serveStaticMiddleware(
       return next()
     }
 
-    // #1426
-    url = req.url = decodeURI(url)
-
     // apply aliases to static requests as well
     let redirected: string | undefined
     for (const { find, replacement } of config.resolve.alias) {
@@ -74,7 +71,6 @@ export function serveRawFsMiddleware(): Connect.NextHandleFunction {
     if (url.startsWith(FS_PREFIX)) {
       url = url.slice(FS_PREFIX.length)
       if (isWin) url = url.replace(/^[A-Z]:/i, '')
-      req.url = decodeURI(url)
       serveFromRoot(req, res, next)
     } else {
       next()
diff --git a/packages/vite/src/node/server/middlewares/transform.ts b/packages/vite/src/node/server/middlewares/transform.ts
index 0759ee7dbe49db..bf123bb93b9033 100644
--- a/packages/vite/src/node/server/middlewares/transform.ts
+++ b/packages/vite/src/node/server/middlewares/transform.ts
@@ -54,10 +54,7 @@ export function transformMiddleware(
 
     let url
     try {
-      url = decodeURI(removeTimestampQuery(req.url!)).replace(
-        NULL_BYTE_PLACEHOLDER,
-        '\0'
-      )
+      url = removeTimestampQuery(req.url!).replace(NULL_BYTE_PLACEHOLDER, '\0')
     } catch (err) {
       // if it starts with %PUBLIC%, someone's migrating from something
       // like create-react-app