diff --git a/src/DirManager.cpp b/src/DirManager.cpp
index 1ed0cb698..a4fb80ace 100644
--- a/src/DirManager.cpp
+++ b/src/DirManager.cpp
@@ -417,10 +417,8 @@ bool DirManager::SetProject(wxString& newProjPath, wxString& newProjName, const
       #endif
 
    } else {
-      #ifndef __WXMAC__
       if (!wxDirExists(projFull))
          return false;
-      #endif
    }
 
    /* Move all files into this new directory.  Files which are
diff --git a/src/Project.cpp b/src/Project.cpp
index 01daa8f11..75f81fdb4 100644
--- a/src/Project.cpp
+++ b/src/Project.cpp
@@ -2681,14 +2681,22 @@ bool AudacityProject::HandleXMLTag(const wxChar *tag, const wxChar **attrs)
          }
 
          if (!projName.IsEmpty())
-         {
+         {            
+            // First try to load the data files based on the _data dir given in the .aup file
+            // If this fails then try to use the filename of the .aup as the base directory
+            // This is because unzipped projects e.g. those that get transfered between mac-pc
+            // have encoding issues and end up expanding the wrong filenames for certain
+            // international characters (such as capital 'A' with an umlaut.)
             if (!mDirManager->SetProject(projPath, projName, false))
             {
-               wxMessageBox(wxString::Format(_("Couldn't find the project data folder: \"%s\""),
+               projName = GetName() + wxT("_data");
+               if (!mDirManager->SetProject(projPath, projName, false)) {
+                  wxMessageBox(wxString::Format(_("Couldn't find the project data folder: \"%s\""),
                                              projName.c_str()),
                                              _("Error opening project"),
                                              wxOK | wxCENTRE, this);
-               return false;
+                  return false;
+               }
             }
          }