diff --git a/packages/utils/url.test.ts b/packages/utils/url.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..cec4d73db
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/utils/url.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+import { fileUriToPath } from './url';
+
+describe('utils/url', () => {
+
+	it('should convert a file URI to a file path', (async () => {
+		// Tests imported from https://github.com/TooTallNate/file-uri-to-path/tree/master/test
+		const testCases = {
+			'file://host/path': '//host/path',
+			'file://localhost/etc/fstab': '/etc/fstab',
+			'file:///etc/fstab': '/etc/fstab',
+			'file:///c:/WINDOWS/clock.avi': 'c:/WINDOWS/clock.avi',
+			'file://localhost/c|/WINDOWS/clock.avi': 'c:/WINDOWS/clock.avi',
+			'file:///c|/WINDOWS/clock.avi': 'c:/WINDOWS/clock.avi',
+			'file://localhost/c:/WINDOWS/clock.avi': 'c:/WINDOWS/clock.avi',
+			'file://hostname/path/to/the%20file.txt': '//hostname/path/to/the file.txt',
+			'file:///c:/path/to/the%20file.txt': 'c:/path/to/the file.txt',
+			'file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/davris/FileSchemeURIs.doc': 'C:/Documents and Settings/davris/FileSchemeURIs.doc',
+			'file:///C:/caf%C3%A9/%C3%A5r/d%C3%BCnn/%E7%89%9B%E9%93%83/Ph%E1%BB%9F/%F0%9F%98%B5.exe': 'C:/café/år/dünn/牛铃/Phở/😵.exe',
+		};
+
+		for (const [input, expected] of Object.entries(testCases)) {
+			const actual = fileUriToPath(input);
+			expect(actual).toBe(expected);
+		}
+
+		expect(fileUriToPath('file://c:/not/quite/right')).toBe('c:/not/quite/right');
+		expect(fileUriToPath('file:///d:/better')).toBe('d:/better');
+		expect(fileUriToPath('file:///c:/AUTOEXEC.BAT', 'win32')).toBe('c:\\AUTOEXEC.BAT');
+	}));
+
+});
diff --git a/packages/utils/url.ts b/packages/utils/url.ts
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..54153cb1b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/utils/url.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,98 @@
+/* eslint-disable import/prefer-default-export */
+
+// This is a modified version of the file-uri-to-path package:
+//
+// - It removes the dependency to the "path" package, which wouldn't work with
+//   React Native.
+//
+// - It always returns paths with forward slashes "/". This is normally handled
+//   properly everywhere.
+//
+// - Adds the "platform" parameter to optionall return paths with "\" for win32
+function fileUriToPath_(uri: string, platform: string) {
+	const sep = '/';
+
+	if (
+		typeof uri !== 'string' ||
+		uri.length <= 7 ||
+		uri.substring(0, 7) !== 'file://'
+	) {
+		throw new TypeError(
+			'must pass in a file:// URI to convert to a file path',
+		);
+	}
+
+	const rest = decodeURI(uri.substring(7));
+	const firstSlash = rest.indexOf('/');
+	let host = rest.substring(0, firstSlash);
+	let path = rest.substring(firstSlash + 1);
+
+	// 2.  Scheme Definition
+	// As a special case, <host> can be the string "localhost" or the empty
+	// string; this is interpreted as "the machine from which the URL is
+	// being interpreted".
+	if (host === 'localhost') {
+		host = '';
+	}
+
+	if (host) {
+		host = sep + sep + host;
+	}
+
+	// 3.2  Drives, drive letters, mount points, file system root
+	// Drive letters are mapped into the top of a file URI in various ways,
+	// depending on the implementation; some applications substitute
+	// vertical bar ("|") for the colon after the drive letter, yielding
+	// "file:///c|/tmp/test.txt".  In some cases, the colon is left
+	// unchanged, as in "file:///c:/tmp/test.txt".  In other cases, the
+	// colon is simply omitted, as in "file:///c/tmp/test.txt".
+	path = path.replace(/^(.+)\|/, '$1:');
+
+	// for Windows, we need to invert the path separators from what a URI uses
+	// if (sep === '\\') {
+	// 	path = path.replace(/\//g, '\\');
+	// }
+
+	if (/^.+:/.test(path)) {
+		// has Windows drive at beginning of path
+	} else {
+		// unix path…
+		path = sep + path;
+	}
+
+	if (platform === 'win32') {
+		return (host + path).replace(/\//g, '\\');
+	} else {
+		return host + path;
+	}
+}
+
+export const fileUriToPath = (path: string, platform = 'linux') => {
+	const output = fileUriToPath_(path, platform);
+
+	// The file-uri-to-path module converts Windows path such as
+	//
+	// file://c:/autoexec.bat => \\c:\autoexec.bat
+	//
+	// Probably because a file:// that starts with only two slashes is not
+	// quite valid. If we use three slashes, it works:
+	//
+	// file:///c:/autoexec.bat => c:\autoexec.bat
+	//
+	// However there are various places in the app where we can find
+	// paths with only two slashes because paths are often constructed
+	// as `file://${resourcePath}` - which works in all OSes except
+	// Windows.
+	//
+	// So here we introduce a special case - if we detect that we have
+	// an invalid Windows path that starts with \\x:, we just remove
+	// the first two backslashes.
+	//
+	// https://github.com/laurent22/joplin/issues/5693
+
+	if (output.match(/^\/\/[a-zA-Z]:/)) {
+		return output.substr(2);
+	}
+
+	return output;
+};