diff --git a/include/fmt/format.h b/include/fmt/format.h
index 65e19d2d..8c6d0451 100644
--- a/include/fmt/format.h
+++ b/include/fmt/format.h
@@ -1311,7 +1311,13 @@ class utf8_to_utf16 {
   inline auto str() const -> std::wstring { return {&buffer_[0], size()}; }
 };
 
-enum class to_utf8_error_policy { abort, replace };
+enum class to_utf8_error_policy { abort, replace, wtf };
+
+inline void to_utf8_3bytes(buffer<char>& buf, uint32_t cp) {
+  buf.push_back(static_cast<char>(0xe0 | (cp >> 12)));
+  buf.push_back(static_cast<char>(0x80 | ((cp & 0xfff) >> 6)));
+  buf.push_back(static_cast<char>(0x80 | (cp & 0x3f)));
+}
 
 // A converter from UTF-16/UTF-32 (host endian) to UTF-8.
 template <typename WChar, typename Buffer = memory_buffer> class to_utf8 {
@@ -1353,8 +1359,16 @@ template <typename WChar, typename Buffer = memory_buffer> class to_utf8 {
         // Handle a surrogate pair.
         ++p;
         if (p == s.end() || (c & 0xfc00) != 0xd800 || (*p & 0xfc00) != 0xdc00) {
-          if (policy == to_utf8_error_policy::abort) return false;
-          buf.append(string_view("\xEF\xBF\xBD"));
+          switch (policy) {
+          case to_utf8_error_policy::abort:
+            return false;
+          case to_utf8_error_policy::replace:
+            buf.append(string_view("\xEF\xBF\xBD"));
+            break;
+          case to_utf8_error_policy::wtf:
+            to_utf8_3bytes(buf, c);
+            break;
+          }
           --p;
           continue;
         }
@@ -1366,9 +1380,7 @@ template <typename WChar, typename Buffer = memory_buffer> class to_utf8 {
         buf.push_back(static_cast<char>(0xc0 | (c >> 6)));
         buf.push_back(static_cast<char>(0x80 | (c & 0x3f)));
       } else if ((c >= 0x800 && c <= 0xd7ff) || (c >= 0xe000 && c <= 0xffff)) {
-        buf.push_back(static_cast<char>(0xe0 | (c >> 12)));
-        buf.push_back(static_cast<char>(0x80 | ((c & 0xfff) >> 6)));
-        buf.push_back(static_cast<char>(0x80 | (c & 0x3f)));
+        to_utf8_3bytes(buf, c);
       } else if (c >= 0x10000 && c <= 0x10ffff) {
         buf.push_back(static_cast<char>(0xf0 | (c >> 18)));
         buf.push_back(static_cast<char>(0x80 | ((c & 0x3ffff) >> 12)));
diff --git a/include/fmt/std.h b/include/fmt/std.h
index 184c6d26..6dd56e28 100644
--- a/include/fmt/std.h
+++ b/include/fmt/std.h
@@ -84,10 +84,12 @@ namespace detail {
 template <typename Char, typename PathChar>
 auto get_path_string(const std::filesystem::path& p,
                      const std::basic_string<PathChar>& native) {
-  if constexpr (std::is_same_v<Char, char> && std::is_same_v<PathChar, wchar_t>)
-    return to_utf8<wchar_t>(native, to_utf8_error_policy::replace);
-  else
+  if constexpr (std::is_same_v<Char, char> &&
+                std::is_same_v<PathChar, wchar_t>) {
+    return to_utf8<wchar_t>(native, to_utf8_error_policy::wtf);
+  } else {
     return p.string<Char>();
+  }
 }
 
 template <typename Char, typename PathChar>
diff --git a/test/std-test.cc b/test/std-test.cc
index 18f6bd3f..c5a0c65a 100644
--- a/test/std-test.cc
+++ b/test/std-test.cc
@@ -39,13 +39,12 @@ TEST(std_test, path) {
   EXPECT_EQ(fmt::format("{}", path(L"\x0428\x0447\x0443\x0447\x044B\x043D\x0448"
                                    L"\x0447\x044B\x043D\x0430")),
             "Шчучыншчына");
-  EXPECT_EQ(fmt::format("{}", path(L"\xd800")), "�");
-  EXPECT_EQ(fmt::format("{}", path(L"HEAD \xd800 TAIL")), "HEAD � TAIL");
-  EXPECT_EQ(fmt::format("{}", path(L"HEAD \xD83D\xDE00 TAIL")),
-            "HEAD \xF0\x9F\x98\x80 TAIL");
-  EXPECT_EQ(fmt::format("{}", path(L"HEAD \xD83D\xD83D\xDE00 TAIL")),
-            "HEAD �\xF0\x9F\x98\x80 TAIL");
-  EXPECT_EQ(fmt::format("{:?}", path(L"\xd800")), "\"\\ud800\"");
+  EXPECT_EQ(fmt::format("{}", path(L"\xD800")), "\xED\xA0\x80");
+  EXPECT_EQ(fmt::format("{}", path(L"[\xD800]")), "[\xED\xA0\x80]");
+  EXPECT_EQ(fmt::format("{}", path(L"[\xD83D\xDE00]")), "[\xF0\x9F\x98\x80]");
+  EXPECT_EQ(fmt::format("{}", path(L"[\xD83D\xD83D\xDE00]")),
+            "[\xED\xA0\xBD\xF0\x9F\x98\x80]");
+  EXPECT_EQ(fmt::format("{:?}", path(L"\xD800")), "\"\\ud800\"");
 #  endif
 }