diff --git a/library/packaging/apt b/library/packaging/apt
index 5173ce60c75..403ce0ea960 100644
--- a/library/packaging/apt
+++ b/library/packaging/apt
@@ -174,6 +174,8 @@ def package_status(m, pkgname, version, cache, state):
             return False, False, False
     try:
         has_files = len(pkg.installed_files) > 0
+    except UnicodeDecodeError:
+        has_files = True
     except AttributeError:
         has_files = False  # older python-apt cannot be used to determine non-purged