diff --git a/src/image.c b/src/image.c
index ffe2f607e52..c8a192aaaf1 100644
--- a/src/image.c
+++ b/src/image.c
@@ -6308,14 +6308,16 @@ native_image_p (Lisp_Object object)
 static bool
 native_image_load (struct frame *f, struct image *img)
 {
+  Lisp_Object image_file = image_spec_value (img->spec, QCfile, NULL);
+
+  if (STRINGP (image_file))
+    image_file = image_find_image_file (image_file);
 
 # ifdef HAVE_NTGUI
-  return w32_load_image (f, img,
-                         image_spec_value (img->spec, QCfile, NULL),
+  return w32_load_image (f, img, image_file,
                          image_spec_value (img->spec, QCdata, NULL));
 # elif defined HAVE_NS
-  return ns_load_image (f, img,
-                        image_spec_value (img->spec, QCfile, NULL),
+  return ns_load_image (f, img, image_file,
                         image_spec_value (img->spec, QCdata, NULL));
 # else
   return 0;
diff --git a/src/w32image.c b/src/w32image.c
index 8d39a09dc7e..70b2eb29b87 100644
--- a/src/w32image.c
+++ b/src/w32image.c
@@ -414,7 +414,6 @@ w32_load_image (struct frame *f, struct image *img,
      and succeeded.  We have a valid token and GDI+ is active.  */
   if (STRINGP (spec_file))
     {
-      spec_file = ENCODE_FILE (spec_file);
       const char *fn = map_w32_filename (SSDATA (spec_file), NULL);
       wchar_t filename_w[MAX_PATH];
       filename_to_utf16 (fn, filename_w);