diff --git a/platformio/fs.py b/platformio/fs.py
index 16dcb3e8..18ad38b2 100644
--- a/platformio/fs.py
+++ b/platformio/fs.py
@@ -54,6 +54,12 @@ def get_file_contents(path):
         with open(path) as fp:
             return fp.read()
     except UnicodeDecodeError:
+        click.secho(
+            "Unicode decode error has occurred, please remove invalid "
+            "(non-ASCII or non-UTF8) characters from %s file" % path,
+            fg="yellow",
+            err=True,
+        )
         with io.open(path, encoding="latin-1") as fp:
             return fp.read()
 
@@ -63,13 +69,6 @@ def write_file_contents(path, contents, errors=None):
         with open(path, "w") as fp:
             return fp.write(contents)
     except UnicodeEncodeError:
-        if errors:
-            click.secho(
-                "Warning! There is a problem with contents encoding, please remove "
-                "invalid characters (non-ASCII or non-UT8) in %s" % path,
-                fg="yellow",
-                err=True,
-            )
         with io.open(path, "w", encoding="latin-1", errors=errors) as fp:
             return fp.write(contents)
 
diff --git a/tests/test_pkgmanifest.py b/tests/test_pkgmanifest.py
index 64b67047..212793a1 100644
--- a/tests/test_pkgmanifest.py
+++ b/tests/test_pkgmanifest.py
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@
 # limitations under the License.
 
 import os
+import re
 
 import jsondiff
 import pytest
@@ -534,9 +535,13 @@ def test_examples_from_dir(tmpdir_factory):
     assert isinstance(raw_data["examples"], list)
     assert len(raw_data["examples"]) == 6
 
+    def _to_unix_path(path):
+        return re.sub(r"[\\/]+", "/", path)
+
     def _sort_examples(items):
         for i, item in enumerate(items):
-            items[i]["files"] = sorted(item["files"])
+            items[i]["base"] = _to_unix_path(items[i]["base"])
+            items[i]["files"] = [_to_unix_path(f) for f in sorted(items[i]["files"])]
         return sorted(items, key=lambda item: item["name"])
 
     raw_data["examples"] = _sort_examples(raw_data["examples"])