diff --git a/logback-core/pom.xml b/logback-core/pom.xml
index 85d2e49105..5d36af35fd 100755
--- a/logback-core/pom.xml
+++ b/logback-core/pom.xml
@@ -69,6 +69,13 @@
         </dependency>
 
 
+        <dependency>
+            <groupId>org.junit.jupiter</groupId>
+            <artifactId>junit-jupiter-params</artifactId>
+            <version>${junit-jupiter-params.version}</version>
+            <scope>test</scope>
+        </dependency>
+
         <dependency>
             <groupId>org.mockito</groupId>
             <artifactId>mockito-core</artifactId>
diff --git a/logback-core/src/main/java/ch/qos/logback/core/joran/spi/ConfigurationWatchList.java b/logback-core/src/main/java/ch/qos/logback/core/joran/spi/ConfigurationWatchList.java
index 9c11b1eb4b..77b639faaa 100755
--- a/logback-core/src/main/java/ch/qos/logback/core/joran/spi/ConfigurationWatchList.java
+++ b/logback-core/src/main/java/ch/qos/logback/core/joran/spi/ConfigurationWatchList.java
@@ -19,7 +19,6 @@
 import java.io.File;
 import java.net.HttpURLConnection;
 import java.net.URL;
-import java.net.URLDecoder;
 import java.security.NoSuchAlgorithmException;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.Arrays;
@@ -236,15 +235,19 @@ private byte[] computeHash(String response) {
         }
     }
 
-    @SuppressWarnings("deprecation")
     File convertToFile(URL url) {
         String protocol = url.getProtocol();
-        if ("file".equals(protocol)) {
-            return new File(URLDecoder.decode(url.getFile()));
-        } else {
+        if (!"file".equals(protocol)) {
             addInfo("URL [" + url + "] is not of type file");
             return null;
         }
+
+        try {
+            return new File(url.toURI());
+        } catch (Exception e) {
+            addWarn("URL [" + url + "] can not be converted to a file", e);
+            return null;
+        }
     }
 
     /**
diff --git a/logback-core/src/test/java/ch/qos/logback/core/joran/spi/ConfigurationWatchListTest.java b/logback-core/src/test/java/ch/qos/logback/core/joran/spi/ConfigurationWatchListTest.java
index 60050fe7d3..91f5ba6fce 100644
--- a/logback-core/src/test/java/ch/qos/logback/core/joran/spi/ConfigurationWatchListTest.java
+++ b/logback-core/src/test/java/ch/qos/logback/core/joran/spi/ConfigurationWatchListTest.java
@@ -13,26 +13,39 @@
  */
 package ch.qos.logback.core.joran.spi;
 
-import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
+import org.junit.jupiter.params.ParameterizedTest;
+import org.junit.jupiter.params.provider.Arguments;
+import org.junit.jupiter.params.provider.MethodSource;
 
 import java.io.File;
 import java.net.MalformedURLException;
 import java.net.URL;
+import java.util.stream.Stream;
 
 import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertEquals;
+import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Named.named;
+import static org.junit.jupiter.params.provider.Arguments.arguments;
 
 /**
  * @author Ceki G&uuml;lc&uuml;
  */
-public class ConfigurationWatchListTest {
+class ConfigurationWatchListTest {
 
-    @Test
-    // See http://jira.qos.ch/browse/LBCORE-119
-    public void fileToURLAndBack() throws MalformedURLException {
-        File file = new File("a b.xml");
+    @ParameterizedTest(name = "{index}: {0}")
+    @MethodSource("relativeFilePaths")
+    void fileToURLAndBack(String relativePath) throws MalformedURLException {
+        File file = new File(relativePath);
         URL url = file.toURI().toURL();
         ConfigurationWatchList cwl = new ConfigurationWatchList();
         File back = cwl.convertToFile(url);
         assertEquals(file.getName(), back.getName());
     }
+
+    static Stream<Arguments> relativeFilePaths() {
+        return Stream.of(
+            arguments(named("path with space", "a b.xml")),
+            arguments(named("path with plus sign", "a+b.xml"))
+        );
+    }
+
 }