diff --git a/bitbake/lib/toaster/bldcontrol/localhostbecontroller.py b/bitbake/lib/toaster/bldcontrol/localhostbecontroller.py
index b4e41968f1..3da8be4358 100644
--- a/bitbake/lib/toaster/bldcontrol/localhostbecontroller.py
+++ b/bitbake/lib/toaster/bldcontrol/localhostbecontroller.py
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ class LocalhostBEController(BuildEnvironmentController):
             raise ShellCmdException(err)
         else:
             logger.debug("localhostbecontroller: shellcmd success")
-            return out
+            return out.decode('utf-8')
 
     def getGitCloneDirectory(self, url, branch):
         """Construct unique clone directory name out of url and branch."""
diff --git a/bitbake/lib/toaster/bldcontrol/management/commands/loadconf.py b/bitbake/lib/toaster/bldcontrol/management/commands/loadconf.py
index 6d25df9e54..173e3ce579 100644
--- a/bitbake/lib/toaster/bldcontrol/management/commands/loadconf.py
+++ b/bitbake/lib/toaster/bldcontrol/management/commands/loadconf.py
@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ class Command(BaseCommand):
             (out,err) = cmd.communicate()
             if cmd.returncode != 0:
                 logging.warning("Error while importing layer vcs_url: git error: %s" % err)
-            for line in out.split("\n"):
+            for line in out.decode('utf-8').split("\n"):
                 try:
                     (name, path) = line.split("\t", 1)
                     if name == remote_name:
diff --git a/bitbake/lib/toaster/orm/models.py b/bitbake/lib/toaster/orm/models.py
index 9183b0cd7c..58dc753aef 100644
--- a/bitbake/lib/toaster/orm/models.py
+++ b/bitbake/lib/toaster/orm/models.py
@@ -1169,7 +1169,7 @@ class LayerIndexLayerSource(LayerSource):
             except URLError as e:
                 raise Exception("Failed to read %s: %s" % (path, e.reason))
 
-            return json.loads(res.read())
+            return json.loads(res.read().decode('utf-8'))
 
         # verify we can get the basic api
         try: