diff --git a/beetsplug/thumbnails.py b/beetsplug/thumbnails.py
index 3f88248e0..44ffd12de 100644
--- a/beetsplug/thumbnails.py
+++ b/beetsplug/thumbnails.py
@@ -246,7 +246,7 @@ class GioURI(URIGetter):
         if self.available:
             self.libgio.g_type_init()  # for glib < 2.36
 
-            self.libgio.g_file_get_uri.argtypes = [ctypes.c_char_p]
+            self.libgio.g_file_new_for_path.argtypes = [ctypes.c_char_p]
             self.libgio.g_file_new_for_path.restype = ctypes.c_void_p
 
             self.libgio.g_file_get_uri.argtypes = [ctypes.c_void_p]
diff --git a/docs/changelog.rst b/docs/changelog.rst
index 88d87e32f..183fa006e 100644
--- a/docs/changelog.rst
+++ b/docs/changelog.rst
@@ -24,6 +24,9 @@ New features:
 
 Bug fixes:
 
+* :doc:`plugins/thumbnails`: Fix API call to GIO on big endian architectures
+  (like s390x) in thumbnails plugin.
+  :bug:`5708`
 * :doc:`plugins/listenbrainz`: Fix rST formatting for URLs of Listenbrainz API Key documentation and config.yaml.
 * :doc:`plugins/listenbrainz`: Fix ``UnboundLocalError`` in cases where 'mbid' is not defined.
 * :doc:`plugins/fetchart`: Fix fetchart bug where a tempfile could not be deleted due to never being
diff --git a/test/plugins/test_thumbnails.py b/test/plugins/test_thumbnails.py
index 3eb36cd25..00cd545d4 100644
--- a/test/plugins/test_thumbnails.py
+++ b/test/plugins/test_thumbnails.py
@@ -265,7 +265,10 @@ class ThumbnailsTest(BeetsTestCase):
         if not gio.available:
             self.skipTest("GIO library not found")
 
-        assert gio.uri("/foo") == "file:///"  # silent fail
+        import ctypes
+
+        with pytest.raises(ctypes.ArgumentError):
+            gio.uri("/foo")
         assert gio.uri(b"/foo") == "file:///foo"
         assert gio.uri(b"/foo!") == "file:///foo!"
         assert (