diff --git a/cmd/drone-server/static/scripts/services/repos.js b/cmd/drone-server/static/scripts/services/repos.js
index b58a5960..c2fce686 100644
--- a/cmd/drone-server/static/scripts/services/repos.js
+++ b/cmd/drone-server/static/scripts/services/repos.js
@@ -80,7 +80,13 @@
      * @param {string} Plaintext to encrypt.
      */
     this.encrypt = function (repoName, plaintext) {
-      return $http.post('/api/repos/' + repoName + '/encrypt', btoa(plaintext));
+      var conf = {
+        headers: {
+          'Content-Type': 'text/plain; charset=UTF-8'
+        }
+      }
+
+      return $http.post('/api/repos/' + repoName + '/encrypt', btoa(plaintext), conf);
     };
 
     var callback,
diff --git a/pkg/server/repos.go b/pkg/server/repos.go
index 2c27c012..b72b71b3 100644
--- a/pkg/server/repos.go
+++ b/pkg/server/repos.go
@@ -254,7 +254,7 @@ func Encrypt(c *gin.Context) {
 	repo := ToRepo(c)
 	in, err := ioutil.ReadAll(c.Request.Body)
 	if err != nil {
-		c.Fail(500, err)
+		c.Fail(400, err)
 		return
 	}
 	in, err = base64.StdEncoding.DecodeString(string(in))
@@ -263,19 +263,19 @@ func Encrypt(c *gin.Context) {
 		return
 	}
 
-	// make sure the Yaml is valid format to prevent
-	// a malformed value from being used in the build
-	err = yaml.Unmarshal(in, &yaml.MapSlice{})
-	if err != nil {
-		c.Fail(500, err)
-		return
-	}
-
 	// we found some strange characters included in
 	// the yaml file when entered into a browser textarea.
 	// these need to be removed
 	in = bytes.Replace(in, []byte{'\xA0'}, []byte{' '}, -1)
 
+	// make sure the Yaml is valid format to prevent
+	// a malformed value from being used in the build
+	err = yaml.Unmarshal(in, &yaml.MapSlice{})
+	if err != nil {
+		c.Fail(500, err)
+		return
+	}
+
 	// encrypts using go-jose
 	out, err := secure.Encrypt(string(in), repo.Keys.Private)
 	if err != nil {