diff --git a/plugins/in_tail/tail_file.c b/plugins/in_tail/tail_file.c
index 1d6ba3f95fe..2ffc598522f 100644
--- a/plugins/in_tail/tail_file.c
+++ b/plugins/in_tail/tail_file.c
@@ -651,12 +651,11 @@ static int process_content(struct flb_tail_file *file, size_t *bytes)
         file->last_processed_bytes += processed_bytes;
     }
 
-#ifdef FLB_HAVE_UNICODE_ENCODER
     if (decoded) {
         flb_free(decoded);
         decoded = NULL;
     }
-#endif
+
     file->parsed = file->buf_len;
 
     if (lines > 0) {