diff --git a/src/calibre/db/notes/exim.py b/src/calibre/db/notes/exim.py
index a180b21462..0ff93ac8ca 100644
--- a/src/calibre/db/notes/exim.py
+++ b/src/calibre/db/notes/exim.py
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ import os
 import shutil
 from html5_parser import parse
 from lxml import html
-from urllib.parse import urlparse
+from urllib.parse import unquote, urlparse
 
 from calibre.ebooks.chardet import xml_to_unicode
 from calibre.utils.cleantext import clean_xml_chars
@@ -63,7 +63,7 @@ def import_note(path_to_html_file: str, add_resource) -> dict:
         except Exception:
             continue
         if purl.scheme in ('', 'file'):
-            path = purl.path
+            path = unquote(purl.path)
             if not os.path.isabs(path):
                 path = os.path.join(basedir, path)
             q = os.path.normcase(get_long_path_name(os.path.abspath(path)))
diff --git a/src/calibre/db/tests/notes.py b/src/calibre/db/tests/notes.py
index ee4df65f44..49805fc241 100644
--- a/src/calibre/db/tests/notes.py
+++ b/src/calibre/db/tests/notes.py
@@ -124,14 +124,14 @@ def test_cache_api(self: 'NotesTest'):
     self.assertIsNone(cache.get_notes_resource(h1))
     self.assertIsNone(cache.get_notes_resource(h2))
     # test exim of note
-    doc = '<p>test simple exim <img src="r1.png"> of note with resources <img src="r2.png">. Works or not</p>'
+    doc = '<p>test simple exim <img src="r 1.png"> of note with resources <img src="r%202.png">. Works or not</p>'
     with tempfile.TemporaryDirectory() as tdir:
         idir = os.path.join(tdir, 'i')
         os.mkdir(idir)
         with open(os.path.join(idir, 'index.html'), 'w') as f:
             f.write(doc)
-        shutil.copyfile(get_image_path('lt.png'), os.path.join(idir, 'r1.png'))
-        shutil.copyfile(get_image_path('library.png'), os.path.join(idir, 'r2.png'))
+        shutil.copyfile(get_image_path('lt.png'), os.path.join(idir, 'r 1.png'))
+        shutil.copyfile(get_image_path('library.png'), os.path.join(idir, 'r 2.png'))
         note_id = cache.import_note('authors', author_id, f.name)
         self.assertGreater(note_id, 0)
         self.assertIn('<p>test simple exim <img', cache.notes_for('authors', author_id))
@@ -139,8 +139,8 @@ def test_cache_api(self: 'NotesTest'):
         os.mkdir(edir)
         index_name = cache.export_note('authors', author_id, edir)
         with open(os.path.join(edir, index_name)) as f:
-            self.assertIn(doc, f.read())
-        for x in ('r1.png', 'r2.png'):
+            self.assertIn(doc.replace('r 1.png', 'r%201.png'), f.read())
+        for x in ('r 1.png', 'r 2.png'):
             with open(os.path.join(idir, x), 'rb') as a, open(os.path.join(edir, x), 'rb') as b:
                 self.assertEqual(a.read(), b.read())