diff --git a/onionr/onionrusers/contactmanager.py b/onionr/onionrusers/contactmanager.py
index 25343efb..0fbd2de9 100755
--- a/onionr/onionrusers/contactmanager.py
+++ b/onionr/onionrusers/contactmanager.py
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ class ContactManager(onionrusers.OnionrUser):
         try:
             if mnemonickeys.DELIMITER in publicKey:
                 publicKey = mnemonickeys.get_base32(publicKey.split(mnemonickeys.DELIMITER))
-                publicKey = unpaddedbase32.b32encode(bytesconverter.str_to_bytes(publicKey))
+                #publicKey = unpaddedbase32.b32encode(bytesconverter.str_to_bytes(publicKey))
         except ValueError:
             pass
         publicKey = bytesconverter.bytes_to_str(unpaddedbase32.repad(bytesconverter.str_to_bytes(publicKey)))
diff --git a/onionr/onionrutils/mnemonickeys.py b/onionr/onionrutils/mnemonickeys.py
index 792cf8cd..d1384571 100644
--- a/onionr/onionrutils/mnemonickeys.py
+++ b/onionr/onionrutils/mnemonickeys.py
@@ -40,4 +40,8 @@ def get_human_readable_ID(pub=''):
 
 def get_base32(words):
     '''converts mnemonic to base32'''
-    return unpaddedbase32.b32encode(niceware.passphrase_to_bytes(words.split(DELIMITER)))
+    try:
+        return unpaddedbase32.b32encode(niceware.passphrase_to_bytes(words.split(DELIMITER)))
+    except AttributeError:
+        ret = unpaddedbase32.b32encode(niceware.passphrase_to_bytes(words))
+        return ret