diff --git a/export.py b/export.py
index 70d36a590f98c4ed0d6850dc6d5c929f282beea1..06bd49e1be04cf07a36de600c8a3e8b155ab8a8c 100644
--- a/export.py
+++ b/export.py
@@ -21,4 +21,4 @@ conn = sqlite3.connect('db/urls.db')
 cursor = conn.cursor()
 res = cursor.execute('SELECT LONG_URL, SHORT_URL FROM WEB_URL WHERE 1') #read all data from database
 for entries in res.fetchall():
-    print(str(entries[1]).replace('"', "") + ";" + str(entries[0]).replace('"', "")) #format the data and print it to console.
\ No newline at end of file
+    print(str(entries[1]).replace('"', "")  + ";" + str(entries[0]).replace('"', "")) #format the data and print it to console.
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/import.py b/import.py
index ecb6d7865345fb1e7df83322fea3d26338b5dde0..5f937af46dede37af2f5f9f6900f8e3f12cd1a82 100644
--- a/import.py
+++ b/import.py
@@ -37,6 +37,6 @@ with sqlite3.connect('db/urls.db') as conn:
         LONG_URL = lines.split(";")[1].replace("\n", "").replace("\r","") #Split the CSV at the ";" then use the seccond one and replace all linebreaks
         res = cursor.execute( #Insert the data in the SQL table
             'INSERT INTO WEB_URL (LONG_URL, SHORT_URL) VALUES (?, ?)',
-            [LONG_URL, SHORT_URL]
+            [LONG_URL, SHORT_URL.lower()]
         )
         counter = counter + 1 #Add 1 to counter, for progress
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/main.py b/main.py
index 0edee33a48a27cb89a25538b3d5b05ce78857582..8ee5f82f223018149623a092b116283cf6bbb65c 100644
--- a/main.py
+++ b/main.py
@@ -79,7 +79,7 @@ def home():
             return render_template('home.html', builddate=builddate, domain=domain_prepared, snackbar="Please enter a short name, before submitting this form", long_url_prefilled=request.form.get('url'), short_url_prefilled=request.form.get('short').lower(), domain_prefilled=domain_to_index[request.form.get('domain')]) #return the user the prefilled form with an error message, because no short link was provided
         shorturl = (request.form.get('domain') + "/" + request.form.get('short')).lower()
 
-        url = str.encode(request.form.get('url'))
+        url = request.form.get('url')
         with sqlite3.connect('db/urls.db') as conn: #Check if another user already used the short link
             cursor = conn.cursor()
             res = cursor.execute('SELECT LONG_URL FROM WEB_URL WHERE SHORT_URL=?', [shorturl])