diff --git a/packages/local-sync/src/message-processor/extract-files.js b/packages/local-sync/src/message-processor/extract-files.js
index acca3b8bc..728a136a9 100644
--- a/packages/local-sync/src/message-processor/extract-files.js
+++ b/packages/local-sync/src/message-processor/extract-files.js
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ function collectFilesFromStruct({db, messageValues, struct, fileIds = new Set()}
           id: fileId,
           size: part.size,
           partId: partId,
+          charset: part.params ? part.params.charset : null,
           encoding: part.encoding,
           filename: filename,
           messageId: messageValues.id,
diff --git a/packages/local-sync/src/models/file.js b/packages/local-sync/src/models/file.js
index 4cc63e38a..f146dc35c 100644
--- a/packages/local-sync/src/models/file.js
+++ b/packages/local-sync/src/models/file.js
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 const base64 = require('base64-stream');
 const {IMAPConnection} = require('isomorphic-core')
+const {QuotedPrintableStreamDecoder} = require('../shared/stream-decoders')
 
 module.exports = (sequelize, Sequelize) => {
   return sequelize.define('file', {
@@ -7,7 +8,8 @@ module.exports = (sequelize, Sequelize) => {
     size: Sequelize.INTEGER,
     partId: Sequelize.STRING,
     version: Sequelize.INTEGER,
-    encoding: Sequelize.INTEGER,
+    charset: Sequelize.STRING,
+    encoding: Sequelize.STRING,
     filename: Sequelize.STRING(500),
     messageId: { type: Sequelize.STRING, allowNull: false },
     accountId: { type: Sequelize.STRING, allowNull: false },
@@ -37,7 +39,18 @@ module.exports = (sequelize, Sequelize) => {
           if (!stream) {
             throw new Error(`Unable to fetch binary data for File ${this.id}`)
           }
-          return stream.pipe(base64.decode());
+          if (/quoted-printable/i.test(this.encoding)) {
+            return stream.pipe(new QuotedPrintableStreamDecoder({charset: this.charset}))
+          } else if (/base64/i.test(this.encoding)) {
+            return stream.pipe(base64.decode());
+          }
+
+          // If there is no encoding, or the encoding is something like
+          // '7bit', '8bit', or 'binary', just return the raw stream. This
+          // stream will be written directly to disk. It's then up to the
+          // user's computer to decide how to interpret the bytes we've
+          // dumped to disk.
+          return stream
         } catch (err) {
           connection.end();
           throw err
diff --git a/packages/local-sync/src/shared/message-factory.js b/packages/local-sync/src/shared/message-factory.js
index 07d8a7e03..175ce91de 100644
--- a/packages/local-sync/src/shared/message-factory.js
+++ b/packages/local-sync/src/shared/message-factory.js
@@ -189,13 +189,21 @@ function bodyFromParts(imapMessage, desiredParts) {
     // see https://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc1341/5_Content-Transfer-Encoding.html
     if (!transferEncoding || new Set(['7bit', '8bit', 'binary']).has(transferEncoding.toLowerCase())) {
       // NO transfer encoding has been performed --- how to decode to a string
-      // depends ONLY on the charset, which defaults to 'ascii' according to
-      // https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2045#section-5.2
-      decoded = encoding.convert(imapMessage.parts[id], 'utf-8', charset || 'ascii').toString('utf-8');
+      // depends ONLY on the charset,
+      //
+      // According to https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2045#section-5.2,
+      // this should default to ascii; however, if we don't get a charset,
+      // it's possible clients (like nodemailer) encoded the data as utf-8
+      // anyway. Since ascii is a strict subset of utf-8, it's safer to
+      // try and decode as utf-8 if we don't have the charset.
+      //
+      // This applies to decoding quoted-printable and base64 as well. The
+      // mimelib library, if charset is null, will default to utf-8
+      decoded = encoding.convert(imapMessage.parts[id], 'utf-8', charset).toString('utf-8');
     } else if (transferEncoding.toLowerCase() === 'quoted-printable') {
-      decoded = mimelib.decodeQuotedPrintable(imapMessage.parts[id], charset || 'ascii');
+      decoded = mimelib.decodeQuotedPrintable(imapMessage.parts[id], charset);
     } else if (transferEncoding.toLowerCase() === 'base64') {
-      decoded = mimelib.decodeBase64(imapMessage.parts[id], charset || 'ascii');
+      decoded = mimelib.decodeBase64(imapMessage.parts[id], charset);
     } else {
       // custom x-token content-transfer-encodings
       return Promise.reject(new Error(`Unsupported Content-Transfer-Encoding ${transferEncoding}, mimetype ${mimeType}`))
diff --git a/packages/local-sync/src/shared/stream-decoders.es6 b/packages/local-sync/src/shared/stream-decoders.es6
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..d1129e45d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/local-sync/src/shared/stream-decoders.es6
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+import {Transform} from 'stream'
+const mimelib = require('mimelib');
+
+export class QuotedPrintableStreamDecoder extends Transform {
+  constructor(opts = {}) {
+    super(opts);
+    this.charset = opts.charset
+    this._text = "";
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Overrides Transform::_transfor
+   *
+   * We can't decode quoted-printable in chunks, so we buffer it.
+   */
+  _transform = (chunk, encoding, cb) => {
+    this._text += chunk.toString();
+    cb();
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Overrides Transform::_flush
+   *
+   * At the end of the stream, decode the whole buffer at once and flush
+   * it out the end.
+   */
+  _flush = (cb) => {
+    // If this.charset is null (a very common case for attachments),
+    // mimelib defaults to utf-8 as the charset.
+    this.push(mimelib.decodeQuotedPrintable(this._text, this.charset));
+    cb();
+  }
+}