diff --git a/youtube_dl/downloader/common.py b/youtube_dl/downloader/common.py
index 5a068aa8b..917f3450e 100644
--- a/youtube_dl/downloader/common.py
+++ b/youtube_dl/downloader/common.py
@@ -4,9 +4,10 @@ import sys
 import time
 
 from ..utils import (
+    compat_str,
     encodeFilename,
-    timeconvert,
     format_bytes,
+    timeconvert,
 )
 
 
@@ -173,7 +174,7 @@ class FileDownloader(object):
                 return
             os.rename(encodeFilename(old_filename), encodeFilename(new_filename))
         except (IOError, OSError) as err:
-            self.report_error(u'unable to rename file: %s' % str(err))
+            self.report_error(u'unable to rename file: %s' % compat_str(err))
 
     def try_utime(self, filename, last_modified_hdr):
         """Try to set the last-modified time of the given file."""