diff --git a/django/core/files/storage.py b/django/core/files/storage.py
index bf30a787bb..13acada64a 100644
--- a/django/core/files/storage.py
+++ b/django/core/files/storage.py
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ from django.conf import settings
 from django.core.exceptions import ImproperlyConfigured, SuspiciousOperation
 from django.core.files import locks, File
 from django.core.files.move import file_move_safe
-from django.utils.encoding import force_unicode
+from django.utils.encoding import force_unicode, smart_str
 from django.utils.functional import LazyObject
 from django.utils.importlib import import_module
 from django.utils.text import get_valid_filename
@@ -212,7 +212,7 @@ class FileSystemStorage(Storage):
             path = safe_join(self.location, name)
         except ValueError:
             raise SuspiciousOperation("Attempted access to '%s' denied." % name)
-        return os.path.normpath(path)
+        return smart_str(os.path.normpath(path))
 
     def size(self, name):
         return os.path.getsize(self.path(name))
diff --git a/tests/modeltests/files/models.py b/tests/modeltests/files/models.py
index ba3eb99910..30bbdf2841 100644
--- a/tests/modeltests/files/models.py
+++ b/tests/modeltests/files/models.py
@@ -70,13 +70,13 @@ ValueError: The 'normal' attribute has no file associated with it.
 []
 >>> files.sort()
 >>> files
-[u'default.txt', u'django_test.txt']
+['default.txt', 'django_test.txt']
 
 >>> obj1.save()
 >>> dirs, files = temp_storage.listdir('tests')
 >>> files.sort()
 >>> files
-[u'assignment.txt', u'default.txt', u'django_test.txt']
+['assignment.txt', 'default.txt', 'django_test.txt']
 
 # Files can be read in a little at a time, if necessary.