diff --git a/src/_backend_agg.cpp b/src/_backend_agg.cpp
index edbd3f2ad2f0..bf4b9dc27732 100644
--- a/src/_backend_agg.cpp
+++ b/src/_backend_agg.cpp
@@ -2168,6 +2168,7 @@ RendererAgg::write_rgba(const Py::Tuple& args)
     }
     else
     {
+        PyErr_Clear();
         PyObject* write_method = PyObject_GetAttrString(py_fileobj.ptr(),
                                                         "write");
         if (!(write_method && PyCallable_Check(write_method)))
@@ -2177,7 +2178,11 @@ RendererAgg::write_rgba(const Py::Tuple& args)
                 "Object does not appear to be a 8-bit string path or a Python file-like object");
         }
 
+        #if PY3K
+        PyObject_CallFunction(write_method, (char *)"y#", pixBuffer, NUMBYTES);
+        #else
         PyObject_CallFunction(write_method, (char *)"s#", pixBuffer, NUMBYTES);
+        #endif
 
         Py_XDECREF(write_method);
     }
diff --git a/src/file_compat.h b/src/file_compat.h
index 102c8b70977d..d2b3fb3ef2b1 100644
--- a/src/file_compat.h
+++ b/src/file_compat.h
@@ -101,8 +101,8 @@ mpl_PyFile_Dup(PyObject *file, char *mode, mpl_off_t *orig_pos)
     /* Record the original raw file handle position */
     *orig_pos = npy_ftell(handle);
     if (*orig_pos == -1) {
-        PyErr_SetString(PyExc_IOError, "obtaining file position failed");
-        return NULL;
+        // handle is a stream, so we don't have to worry about this
+        return handle;
     }
 
     /* Seek raw handle to the Python-side position */
@@ -145,22 +145,19 @@ mpl_PyFile_DupClose(PyObject *file, FILE* handle, mpl_off_t orig_pos)
     if (fd == -1) {
         return -1;
     }
-    if (npy_lseek(fd, orig_pos, SEEK_SET) == -1) {
-        PyErr_SetString(PyExc_IOError, "seeking file failed");
-        return -1;
-    }
-
-    if (position == -1) {
-        PyErr_SetString(PyExc_IOError, "obtaining file position failed");
-        return -1;
-    }
+    if (npy_lseek(fd, orig_pos, SEEK_SET) != -1) {
+        if (position == -1) {
+            PyErr_SetString(PyExc_IOError, "obtaining file position failed");
+            return -1;
+        }
 
-    /* Seek Python-side handle to the FILE* handle position */
-    ret = PyObject_CallMethod(file, "seek", MPL_OFF_T_PYFMT "i", position, 0);
-    if (ret == NULL) {
-        return -1;
+        /* Seek Python-side handle to the FILE* handle position */
+        ret = PyObject_CallMethod(file, "seek", MPL_OFF_T_PYFMT "i", position, 0);
+        if (ret == NULL) {
+            return -1;
+        }
+        Py_DECREF(ret);
     }
-    Py_DECREF(ret);
     return 0;
 }