diff --git a/docs/changelog.rst b/docs/changelog.rst
index 18dbd52b..de0c6297 100644
--- a/docs/changelog.rst
+++ b/docs/changelog.rst
@@ -4,6 +4,11 @@ Changelog
 
 * Support Django 4.2.
 
+* Remove further support for byte strings from the ``root`` and ``prefix`` arguments to ``WhiteNoise``, and Django’s ``STATIC_ROOT`` setting.
+  Like in the previous release, this seems to be a remnant of Python 2 support.
+  Again, this change may be backwards incompatible for a small number of projects, but it’s unlikely.
+  Django does not support ``STATIC_ROOT`` being a byte string.
+
 6.3.0 (2023-01-03)
 ------------------
 
diff --git a/src/whitenoise/base.py b/src/whitenoise/base.py
index d9063fa9..b310264a 100644
--- a/src/whitenoise/base.py
+++ b/src/whitenoise/base.py
@@ -13,7 +13,6 @@
 from .responders import MissingFileError
 from .responders import Redirect
 from .responders import StaticFile
-from .string_utils import decode_if_byte_string
 from .string_utils import decode_path_info
 from .string_utils import ensure_leading_trailing_slash
 
@@ -96,10 +95,8 @@ def serve(static_file, environ, start_response):
             return []
 
     def add_files(self, root, prefix=None):
-        root = decode_if_byte_string(root, force_text=True)
         root = os.path.abspath(root)
         root = root.rstrip(os.path.sep) + os.path.sep
-        prefix = decode_if_byte_string(prefix)
         prefix = ensure_leading_trailing_slash(prefix)
         if self.autorefresh:
             # Later calls to `add_files` overwrite earlier ones, hence we need
diff --git a/src/whitenoise/middleware.py b/src/whitenoise/middleware.py
index 23eb4382..3f5a8091 100644
--- a/src/whitenoise/middleware.py
+++ b/src/whitenoise/middleware.py
@@ -11,7 +11,6 @@
 from django.urls import get_script_prefix
 
 from .base import WhiteNoise
-from .string_utils import decode_if_byte_string
 from .string_utils import ensure_leading_trailing_slash
 
 __all__ = ["WhiteNoiseMiddleware"]
@@ -101,7 +100,7 @@ def __init__(self, get_response=None, settings=settings):
                     self.static_prefix = self.static_prefix[len(script_prefix) :]
         self.static_prefix = ensure_leading_trailing_slash(self.static_prefix)
 
-        self.static_root = decode_if_byte_string(settings.STATIC_ROOT)
+        self.static_root = settings.STATIC_ROOT
         if self.static_root:
             self.add_files(self.static_root, prefix=self.static_prefix)
 
@@ -198,6 +197,6 @@ def get_name_without_hash(self, filename):
 
     def get_static_url(self, name):
         try:
-            return decode_if_byte_string(staticfiles_storage.url(name))
+            return staticfiles_storage.url(name)
         except ValueError:
             return None
diff --git a/src/whitenoise/string_utils.py b/src/whitenoise/string_utils.py
index b56d2624..6be90620 100644
--- a/src/whitenoise/string_utils.py
+++ b/src/whitenoise/string_utils.py
@@ -1,14 +1,6 @@
 from __future__ import annotations
 
 
-def decode_if_byte_string(s, force_text=False):
-    if isinstance(s, bytes):
-        s = s.decode()
-    if force_text and not isinstance(s, str):
-        s = str(s)
-    return s
-
-
 # Follow Django in treating URLs as UTF-8 encoded (which requires undoing the
 # implicit ISO-8859-1 decoding applied in Python 3). Strictly speaking, URLs
 # should only be ASCII anyway, but UTF-8 can be found in the wild.
diff --git a/tests/test_string_utils.py b/tests/test_string_utils.py
index d5b0cf4a..3d56524e 100644
--- a/tests/test_string_utils.py
+++ b/tests/test_string_utils.py
@@ -1,24 +1,8 @@
 from __future__ import annotations
 
-from whitenoise.string_utils import decode_if_byte_string
 from whitenoise.string_utils import ensure_leading_trailing_slash
 
 
-class DecodeIfByteStringTests:
-    def test_bytes(self):
-        assert decode_if_byte_string(b"abc") == "abc"
-
-    def test_unforced(self):
-        x = object()
-        assert decode_if_byte_string(x) is x
-
-    def test_forced(self):
-        x = object()
-        result = decode_if_byte_string(x, force_text=True)
-        assert isinstance(result, str)
-        assert result.startswith("<object object at ")
-
-
 class EnsureLeadingTrailingSlashTests:
     def test_none(self):
         assert ensure_leading_trailing_slash(None) == "/"