diff --git a/lib/base.php b/lib/base.php
index c113ed3b50643c2a1d938848adeb3570f491e03c..e21d0124b32deb22ad6428ba90f793d4d9a3d949 100644
--- a/lib/base.php
+++ b/lib/base.php
@@ -496,6 +496,9 @@ class OC {
 			require_once $vendorAutoLoad;
 		}
 
+		// initialize intl fallback is necessary
+		\Patchwork\Utf8\Bootup::initIntl();
+
 		if (!defined('PHPUNIT_RUN')) {
 			OC\Log\ErrorHandler::setLogger(OC_Log::$object);
 			if (defined('DEBUG') and DEBUG) {
diff --git a/lib/private/util.php b/lib/private/util.php
index a130d997ca33373a39c1d9fe94e6c4198d89bf00..79f3eb7b48c50c62f725f48bbe88165e10b3543b 100755
--- a/lib/private/util.php
+++ b/lib/private/util.php
@@ -1402,13 +1402,11 @@ class OC_Util {
 	 * @return bool|string
 	 */
 	public static function normalizeUnicode($value) {
-		if (class_exists('Patchwork\PHP\Shim\Normalizer')) {
-			$normalizedValue = \Patchwork\PHP\Shim\Normalizer::normalize($value);
-			if ($normalizedValue === false) {
-				\OC_Log::write('core', 'normalizing failed for "' . $value . '"', \OC_Log::WARN);
-			} else {
-				$value = $normalizedValue;
-			}
+		$normalizedValue = normalizer_normalize($value);
+		if ($normalizedValue === null || $normalizedValue === false) {
+			\OC_Log::write('core', 'normalizing failed for "' . $value . '"', \OC_Log::WARN);
+		} else {
+			$value = $normalizedValue;
 		}
 
 		return $value;