diff --git a/changelogs/fragments/ensure_text_source.yaml b/changelogs/fragments/ensure_text_source.yaml
deleted file mode 100644
index 51bbdf022da..00000000000
--- a/changelogs/fragments/ensure_text_source.yaml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,2 +0,0 @@
-bugfixes:
-    - remove ambiguity when it comes to 'the source' 
diff --git a/lib/ansible/inventory/manager.py b/lib/ansible/inventory/manager.py
index 12727fabcda..934ba42f6c4 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/inventory/manager.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/inventory/manager.py
@@ -223,9 +223,7 @@ class InventoryManager(object):
         parsed = False
         display.debug(u'Examining possible inventory source: %s' % source)
 
-        # use binary for path functions
         b_source = to_bytes(source)
-
         # process directories as a collection of inventories
         if os.path.isdir(b_source):
             display.debug(u'Searching for inventory files in directory: %s' % source)
@@ -237,9 +235,9 @@ class InventoryManager(object):
                     continue
 
                 # recursively deal with directory entries
-                fullpath = to_text(os.path.join(b_source, i), errors='surrogate_or_strict')
-                parsed_this_one = self.parse_source(fullpath, cache=cache)
-                display.debug(u'parsed %s as %s' % (fullpath, parsed_this_one))
+                b_fullpath = os.path.join(b_source, i)
+                parsed_this_one = self.parse_source(b_fullpath, cache=cache)
+                display.debug(u'parsed %s as %s' % (to_text(b_fullpath), parsed_this_one))
                 if not parsed:
                     parsed = parsed_this_one
         else:
@@ -260,7 +258,7 @@ class InventoryManager(object):
 
                 # initialize and figure out if plugin wants to attempt parsing this file
                 try:
-                    plugin_wants = bool(plugin.verify_file(source))
+                    plugin_wants = bool(plugin.verify_file(to_text(source)))
                 except Exception:
                     plugin_wants = False
 
@@ -269,16 +267,16 @@ class InventoryManager(object):
                         # in case plugin fails 1/2 way we dont want partial inventory
                         plugin.parse(self._inventory, self._loader, source, cache=cache)
                         parsed = True
-                        display.vvv('Parsed %s inventory source with %s plugin' % (source, plugin_name))
+                        display.vvv('Parsed %s inventory source with %s plugin' % (to_text(source), plugin_name))
                         break
                     except AnsibleParserError as e:
-                        display.debug('%s was not parsable by %s' % (source, plugin_name))
+                        display.debug('%s was not parsable by %s' % (to_text(source), plugin_name))
                         failures.append({'src': source, 'plugin': plugin_name, 'exc': e})
                     except Exception as e:
-                        display.debug('%s failed to parse %s' % (plugin_name, source))
+                        display.debug('%s failed to parse %s' % (plugin_name, to_text(source)))
                         failures.append({'src': source, 'plugin': plugin_name, 'exc': AnsibleError(e)})
                 else:
-                    display.debug('%s did not meet %s requirements' % (source, plugin_name))
+                    display.debug('%s did not meet %s requirements' % (to_text(source), plugin_name))
             else:
                 if not parsed and failures:
                     # only if no plugin processed files should we show errors.
@@ -286,10 +284,8 @@ class InventoryManager(object):
                         display.warning(u'\n* Failed to parse %s with %s plugin: %s' % (to_text(fail['src']), fail['plugin'], to_text(fail['exc'])))
                         if hasattr(fail['exc'], 'tb'):
                             display.vvv(to_text(fail['exc'].tb))
-                    if C.INVENTORY_ANY_UNPARSED_IS_FAILED:
-                        raise AnsibleError(u'Completely failed to parse inventory source %s' % (source))
         if not parsed:
-            display.warning("Unable to parse %s as an inventory source" % source)
+            display.warning("Unable to parse %s as an inventory source" % to_text(source))
 
         # clear up, jic
         self._inventory.current_source = None