diff --git a/setup/gui.py b/setup/gui.py
index 4b6a86126e..ac08e3c0fc 100644
--- a/setup/gui.py
+++ b/setup/gui.py
@@ -58,7 +58,9 @@ def build_images(self):
                 for s in sources:
                     files.append('<file>%s</file>'%s)
                 manifest = '<RCC>\n<qresource prefix="/">\n%s\n</qresource>\n</RCC>'%'\n'.join(sorted(files))
-                with open('images.qrc', 'w') as f:
+                if not isinstance(manifest, bytes):
+                    manifest = manifest.encode('utf-8')
+                with open('images.qrc', 'wb') as f:
                     f.write(manifest)
         finally:
             os.chdir(cwd)
diff --git a/setup/resources.py b/setup/resources.py
index a859735148..7f9fc7e1db 100644
--- a/setup/resources.py
+++ b/setup/resources.py
@@ -145,7 +145,7 @@ def run(self, opts):
         if self.newer(dest, src):
             self.info('\tGenerating Kanwadict')
 
-            for line in open(src, "r"):
+            for line in open(src, "rb"):
                 self.parsekdict(line)
             self.kanwaout(dest)
 
@@ -167,8 +167,8 @@ def run(self, opts):
 
     def mkitaiji(self, src, dst):
         dic = {}
-        for line in open(src, "r"):
-            line = line.strip()
+        for line in open(src, "rb"):
+            line = line.decode('utf-8').strip()
             if line.startswith(';;'):  # skip comment
                 continue
             if re.match(r"^$",line):
@@ -181,8 +181,8 @@ def mkitaiji(self, src, dst):
 
     def mkkanadict(self, src, dst):
         dic = {}
-        for line in open(src, "r"):
-            line = line.strip()
+        for line in open(src, "rb"):
+            line = line.decode('utf-8').strip()
             if line.startswith(';;'):  # skip comment
                 continue
             if re.match(r"^$",line):
@@ -194,7 +194,7 @@ def mkkanadict(self, src, dst):
             f.write(msgpack_dumps(dic))
 
     def parsekdict(self, line):
-        line = line.strip()
+        line = line.decode('utf-8').strip()
         if line.startswith(';;'):  # skip comment
             return
         (yomi, kanji) = line.split(' ')
diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/metadata/__init__.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/metadata/__init__.py
index ba6bf15571..cd32c04ce6 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/metadata/__init__.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/metadata/__init__.py
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@
 
 from calibre import relpath, guess_type, remove_bracketed_text, prints, force_unicode
 from calibre.utils.config_base import tweaks
-from polyglot.builtins import codepoint_to_chr, unicode_type
+from polyglot.builtins import codepoint_to_chr, unicode_type, range
 from polyglot.urllib import quote, unquote, urlparse
 
 
diff --git a/src/calibre/gui2/__init__.py b/src/calibre/gui2/__init__.py
index 1f5325d8d5..800c6df572 100644
--- a/src/calibre/gui2/__init__.py
+++ b/src/calibre/gui2/__init__.py
@@ -1283,12 +1283,19 @@ def sub(match):
     # the qt5 migration
     force_compile = check_for_migration and not gprefs.get('migrated_forms_to_qt5', False)
 
+    class PolyglotStringIO(io.StringIO):
+
+        def write(self, x):
+            if isinstance(x, bytes):
+                x = x.decode('utf-8')
+            io.StringIO.write(self, x)
+
     for form in forms:
         compiled_form = form_to_compiled_form(form)
         if force_compile or not os.path.exists(compiled_form) or os.stat(form).st_mtime > os.stat(compiled_form).st_mtime:
             if not summary:
                 info('\tCompiling form', form)
-            buf = io.StringIO()
+            buf = PolyglotStringIO()
             compileUi(form, buf)
             dat = buf.getvalue()
             dat = dat.replace('import images_rc', '')
@@ -1297,8 +1304,9 @@ def sub(match):
             dat = dat.replace('_("MMM yyyy")', '"MMM yyyy"')
             dat = dat.replace('_("d MMM yyyy")', '"d MMM yyyy"')
             dat = pat.sub(sub, dat)
-
-            open(compiled_form, 'w').write(dat)
+            if not isinstance(dat, bytes):
+                dat = dat.encode('utf-8')
+            open(compiled_form, 'wb').write(dat)
             num += 1
     if num:
         info('Compiled %d forms' % num)
diff --git a/src/calibre/library/caches.py b/src/calibre/library/caches.py
index 07aa609ae7..16eb2698ce 100644
--- a/src/calibre/library/caches.py
+++ b/src/calibre/library/caches.py
@@ -1000,7 +1000,7 @@ def refresh_ids(self, db, ids):
             except IndexError:
                 return None
         try:
-            return map(self.row, ids)
+            return list(map(self.row, ids))
         except ValueError:
             pass
         return None