diff --git a/jail2ban/auth.py b/jail2ban/auth.py
index 15f577d..d9867bf 100644
--- a/jail2ban/auth.py
+++ b/jail2ban/auth.py
@@ -6,9 +6,13 @@ def get_users():
     if 'users' not in g:
         users = {}
         authfile = current_app.config['AUTHFILE']
-        with current_app.open_resource(os.path.join(current_app.instance_path,
+
+        current_app.logger.debug('Reading %s for users', authfile)
+
+        with current_app.open_resource(os.path.join("..",
                                                     authfile)) as f:
             for entry in f:
-                users.update({tuple(entry.split(b':', 1))})
+                users.update({tuple(entry.decode('ascii').strip().split(':', 1))})
             g.users = users
+    current_app.logger.debug(g.users)
     return g.users