diff --git a/gramps/gen/merge/diff.py b/gramps/gen/merge/diff.py
index 5718b13ed..070c3b43c 100644
--- a/gramps/gen/merge/diff.py
+++ b/gramps/gen/merge/diff.py
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@ from gramps.cli.grampscli import CLIManager
 from ..plug import BasePluginManager
 from ..db.dictionary import DictionaryDb
 from ..const import GRAMPS_LOCALE as glocale
+from ..constfunc import handle2internal
 _ = glocale.translation.gettext
 
 def import_as_dict(filename):
@@ -136,8 +137,8 @@ def diff_dbs(db1, db2):
     diffs = []
     for item in ['Person', 'Family', 'Source', 'Citation', 'Event', 'Media',
                  'Place', 'Repository', 'Note', 'Tag']:
-        handles1 = sorted(db1._tables[item]["handles_func"]())
-        handles2 = sorted(db2._tables[item]["handles_func"]())
+        handles1 = sorted([handle2internal(handle) for handle in db1._tables[item]["handles_func"]()])
+        handles2 = sorted([handle2internal(handle) for handle in db2._tables[item]["handles_func"]()])
         p1 = 0
         p2 = 0
         while p1 < len(handles1) and p2 < len(handles2):