diff --git a/server/monitor-types/tailscale-ping.js b/server/monitor-types/tailscale-ping.js
index 1b2be2003..84b913d01 100644
--- a/server/monitor-types/tailscale-ping.js
+++ b/server/monitor-types/tailscale-ping.js
@@ -39,7 +39,8 @@ class TailscalePing extends MonitorType {
     async runTailscalePing(hostname, interval) {
         let timeout = interval * 1000 * 0.8;
         let res = await childProcessAsync.spawn("tailscale", [ "ping", "--c", "1", hostname ], {
-            timeout: timeout
+            timeout: timeout,
+            encoding: "utf8",
         });
         if (res.stderr && res.stderr.toString()) {
             throw new Error(`Error in output: ${res.stderr.toString()}`);
diff --git a/server/notification-providers/apprise.js b/server/notification-providers/apprise.js
index 1943aaa60..045e65cc4 100644
--- a/server/notification-providers/apprise.js
+++ b/server/notification-providers/apprise.js
@@ -11,7 +11,9 @@ class Apprise extends NotificationProvider {
             args.push("-t");
             args.push(notification.title);
         }
-        const s = await childProcessAsync.spawn("apprise", args);
+        const s = await childProcessAsync.spawn("apprise", args, {
+            encoding: "utf8",
+        });
 
         const output = (s.stdout) ? s.stdout.toString() : "ERROR: maybe apprise not found";