diff --git a/src/l10n.py b/src/l10n.py
index d097f2f9..e3e8d07e 100644
--- a/src/l10n.py
+++ b/src/l10n.py
@@ -30,10 +30,31 @@ if shared.config.has_option('bitmessagesettings', 'timeformat'):
     try:
         time.strftime(time_format)
     except:
+        logger.exception('Could not format timestamp')
         time_format = DEFAULT_TIME_FORMAT
 else:
     time_format = DEFAULT_TIME_FORMAT
 
+#It seems some systems lie about the encoding they use so we perform
+#comprehensive decoding tests
+if time_format != DEFAULT_TIME_FORMAT:
+    try:
+        #Check day names
+        for i in xrange(7):
+            unicode(time.strftime(time_format, (0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, i, 0, 0)), encoding)
+        #Check month names
+        for i in xrange(1, 13):
+            unicode(time.strftime(time_format, (0, i, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0)), encoding)
+        #Check AM/PM
+        unicode(time.strftime(time_format, (0, 0, 0, 11, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0)), encoding)
+        unicode(time.strftime(time_format, (0, 0, 0, 13, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0)), encoding)
+        #Check DST
+        unicode(time.strftime(time_format, (0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1)), encoding)
+    except:
+        logger.exception('Could not decode locale formatted timestamp')
+        time_format = DEFAULT_TIME_FORMAT
+        encoding = DEFAULT_ENCODING
+
 
 def formatTimestamp(timestamp = None, as_unicode = True):
     #For some reason some timestamps are strings so we need to sanitize.