diff --git a/esp/services/ws_store/ws_storeService.cpp b/esp/services/ws_store/ws_storeService.cpp
index 4f90f1165c3..c9fd66c20ed 100644
--- a/esp/services/ws_store/ws_storeService.cpp
+++ b/esp/services/ws_store/ws_storeService.cpp
@@ -359,11 +359,7 @@ bool CwsstoreEx::onFetchKeyMetadata(IEspContext &context, IEspFetchKeyMDRequest
         {
             Owned<IEspKVPair> kvpair = createKVPair("","");
 
-            //it's possible this has been encoded, so decode it
-            StringBuffer decoded;
-            decodePtreeName(decoded, attributes->queryName());
-
-            kvpair->setKey(decoded.str());
+            kvpair->setKey(attributes->queryName());
             kvpair->setValue(attributes->queryValue());
             pairs.append(*kvpair.getClear());
         }