diff --git a/libretranslate/templates/app.js.template b/libretranslate/templates/app.js.template
index a48676d..a3d47d3 100644
--- a/libretranslate/templates/app.js.template
+++ b/libretranslate/templates/app.js.template
@@ -206,7 +206,7 @@ document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', function(){
 
                 this.updateQueryParam('source', this.sourceLang)
                 this.updateQueryParam('target', this.targetLang)
-                this.updateQueryParam('q', encodeURI(this.inputText))
+                this.updateQueryParam('q', this.inputText)
 
                 if (this.timeout) clearTimeout(this.timeout);
                 this.timeout = null;
@@ -470,7 +470,7 @@ function handleLangsResponse(self, response) {
         const defaultText = self.getQueryParam("q")
 
         if (defaultText) {
-            self.inputText = decodeURI(defaultText)
+            self.inputText = defaultText
             self.handleInput(new Event('none'))
         }
     } else {