The invention provides a method and apparatus for encoding a filename having an illegal character. The method features the step of encoding the filename by replacing the illegal character with a specific code character. The apparatus features an encoder module for a mobile terminal or other suitable device that encodes the filename by replacing the illegal character with the specific code character. The invention also features a decoder module for decoding an encoded filename by replacing the specific code character with the illegal character, whereby the filename is decoded back to the original format.