diff --git a/django/contrib/sessions/backends/file.py b/django/contrib/sessions/backends/file.py
index cc6fcdb045..20ac2c2087 100644
--- a/django/contrib/sessions/backends/file.py
+++ b/django/contrib/sessions/backends/file.py
@@ -5,7 +5,6 @@ import tempfile
 from django.conf import settings
 from django.contrib.sessions.backends.base import SessionBase, CreateError
 from django.core.exceptions import SuspiciousOperation, ImproperlyConfigured
-from django.utils.encoding import smart_bytes
 
 
 class SessionStore(SessionBase):