diff --git a/Main.py b/Main.py
index 4e7e5c01..c6041bdf 100644
--- a/Main.py
+++ b/Main.py
@@ -245,7 +245,7 @@ def main(args, seed=None):
                                                             for location in world.get_filled_locations() if
                                                             type(location.address) is int],
                                               "server_options": get_options()["server_options"]
-                                              }).encode("utf-8"))
+                                              }).encode("utf-8"), 9)
         if args.jsonout:
             jsonout["multidata"] = list(multidata)
         else:
diff --git a/MultiServer.py b/MultiServer.py
index 1a8243c0..3f949ddb 100644
--- a/MultiServer.py
+++ b/MultiServer.py
@@ -1044,7 +1044,7 @@ async def main(args: argparse.Namespace):
             ctx.data_filename = tkinter.filedialog.askopenfilename(filetypes=(("Multiworld data","*multidata"),))
 
         with open(ctx.data_filename, 'rb') as f:
-            jsonobj = json.loads(zlib.decompress(f.read()).decode("utf-8"))
+            jsonobj = json.loads(zlib.decompress(f.read()).decode("utf-8-sig"))
             for team, names in enumerate(jsonobj['names']):
                 for player, name in enumerate(names, 1):
                     ctx.player_names[(team, player)] = name
@@ -1052,7 +1052,7 @@ async def main(args: argparse.Namespace):
             ctx.remote_items = set(jsonobj['remote_items'])
             ctx.locations = {tuple(k): tuple(v) for k, v in jsonobj['locations']}
     except Exception as e:
-        logging.error('Failed to read multiworld data (%s)' % e)
+        logging.exception('Failed to read multiworld data (%s)' % e)
         return
 
     ip = args.host if args.host else Utils.get_public_ipv4()