diff --git a/source/net/sourceforge/filebot/MetaAttributeView.java b/source/net/sourceforge/filebot/MetaAttributeView.java
index a97f7666..9ed455d5 100644
--- a/source/net/sourceforge/filebot/MetaAttributeView.java
+++ b/source/net/sourceforge/filebot/MetaAttributeView.java
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ public class MetaAttributeView extends AbstractMap<String, String> {
 	private final Charset encoding;
 
 	public MetaAttributeView(File file) throws IOException {
-		Path path = file.toPath();
+		Path path = file.getCanonicalFile().toPath();
 		while (isSymbolicLink(path)) {
 			Path link = readSymbolicLink(path);
 			if (!link.isAbsolute()) {
diff --git a/source/net/sourceforge/tuned/FileUtilities.java b/source/net/sourceforge/tuned/FileUtilities.java
index 15cf54c5..fb25e3fa 100644
--- a/source/net/sourceforge/tuned/FileUtilities.java
+++ b/source/net/sourceforge/tuned/FileUtilities.java
@@ -100,6 +100,10 @@ public final class FileUtilities {
 
 	public static File createRelativeSymlink(File link, File target, boolean relativize) throws IOException {
 		if (relativize) {
+			// make sure we're working with the full path
+			link = link.getCanonicalFile();
+			target = target.getCanonicalFile();
+
 			try {
 				target = link.getParentFile().toPath().relativize(target.toPath()).toFile();
 			} catch (Throwable e) {