diff --git a/shares.py b/shares.py
index bde0203e1..5e7b51aaf 100644
--- a/shares.py
+++ b/shares.py
@@ -83,7 +83,7 @@ def getValidSharedItemID(actor: str, displayName: str) -> str:
     """Removes any invalid characters from the display name to
     produce an item ID
     """
-    removeChars = (' ', '\n', '\r')
+    removeChars = (' ', '\n', '\r', '#')
     for ch in removeChars:
         displayName = displayName.replace(ch, '')
     removeChars2 = ('+', '/', '\\', '?', '&')
@@ -91,7 +91,7 @@ def getValidSharedItemID(actor: str, displayName: str) -> str:
         displayName = displayName.replace(ch, '-')
     displayName = displayName.replace('.', '_')
     displayName = displayName.replace("’", "'")
-    return actor + '/shareditems/' + displayName
+    return actor.replace('/', '#') + '#shareditems#' + displayName
 
 
 def removeSharedItem(baseDir: str, nickname: str, domain: str,
diff --git a/webapp_utils.py b/webapp_utils.py
index 6699c0201..c001cb3ca 100644
--- a/webapp_utils.py
+++ b/webapp_utils.py
@@ -381,7 +381,8 @@ def sharesTimelineJson(actor: str, pageNumber: int, itemsPerPage: int,
                     ctr = 0
                     for itemID, item in sharesJson.items():
                         # assign owner to the item
-                        item['actor'] = itemID.split('/shareditems/')[0]
+                        item['actor'] = \
+                            itemID.split('#shareditems#')[0].replace('#', '/')
                         allSharesJson[str(item['published'])] = item
                         ctr += 1
                         if ctr >= maxSharesPerAccount: