diff --git a/data/users.py b/data/users.py
index 10c909cb8..3d763c9b6 100644
--- a/data/users.py
+++ b/data/users.py
@@ -148,19 +148,24 @@ class UserAuthentication(object):
     """ Returns the secret key to use for encrypting and decrypting. """
     from app import app
     app_secret_key = app.config['SECRET_KEY']
+    secret_key = None
 
     # First try parsing the key as an int.
     try:
       big_int = int(app_secret_key)
-      secret_key = bytearray.fromhex('{:02x}'.format(big_int))
+      secret_key = str(bytearray.fromhex('{:02x}'.format(big_int)))
     except ValueError:
-      secret_key = app_secret_key
+      pass
 
     # Next try parsing it as an UUID.
-    try:
-      secret_key = uuid.UUID(app_secret_key).bytes
-    except ValueError:
-      secret_key = app_secret_key
+    if secret_key is None:
+      try:
+        secret_key = uuid.UUID(app_secret_key).bytes
+      except ValueError:
+        pass
+
+    if secret_key is None:
+      secret_key = str(bytearray(map(ord, app_secret_key)))
 
     # Otherwise, use the bytes directly.
     return ''.join(itertools.islice(itertools.cycle(secret_key), 32))