diff --git a/lang/js/BrowserTestExtension/tests/encryptDecryptTest.js b/lang/js/BrowserTestExtension/tests/encryptDecryptTest.js
index 1efdf5cf..c10c5d06 100644
--- a/lang/js/BrowserTestExtension/tests/encryptDecryptTest.js
+++ b/lang/js/BrowserTestExtension/tests/encryptDecryptTest.js
@@ -144,6 +144,30 @@ describe('Encryption and Decryption', function (){
             });
     }).timeout(3000);
 
+    it('Random data, original data is and should stay base64 encoded',
+        function (done) {
+            let data = bigBoringString(0.001);
+            let b64data = btoa(data);
+            context.encrypt(
+                { data: b64data, publicKeys: good_fpr })
+                .then(function (answer) {
+                    expect(answer).to.not.be.empty;
+                    expect(answer.data).to.be.a('string');
+                    expect(answer.data).to.include(
+                        'BEGIN PGP MESSAGE');
+                    expect(answer.data).to.include(
+                        'END PGP MESSAGE');
+                    context.decrypt({
+                        data:answer.data, expect: 'base64' })
+                        .then(function (result) {
+                            expect(result).to.not.be.empty;
+                            expect(result.data).to.be.a('string');
+                            expect(result.data).to.equal(b64data);
+                            done();
+                        });
+                });
+    }).timeout(3000);
+
     for (let j = 0; j < inputvalues.encrypt.good.data_nonascii_32.length; j++){
         it('Roundtrip with >1MB non-ascii input meeting default chunksize (' +
             (j + 1) + '/'
diff --git a/lang/js/src/Connection.js b/lang/js/src/Connection.js
index 8756cce1..3fd1810d 100644
--- a/lang/js/src/Connection.js
+++ b/lang/js/src/Connection.js
@@ -266,13 +266,16 @@ class Answer{
                 if (_decodedResponse.base64 === true
                     && poa.data[key] === 'string'
                 ) {
-                    if (this.expected === 'binary'){
+                    if (this.expected === 'uint8'){
                         _response[key] = atobArray(_decodedResponse[key]);
-                        _response.binary = true;
+                        _response.format = 'uint8';
+                    } else if (this.expected === 'base64'){
+                        _response[key] = _decodedResponse[key];
+                        _response.format = 'base64';
                     } else {
                         _response[key] = Utf8ArrayToStr(
                             atobArray(_decodedResponse[key]));
-                        _response.binary = false;
+                        _response.format = 'string';
                     }
                 } else {
                     _response[key] = decode(_decodedResponse[key]);
diff --git a/lang/js/src/Message.js b/lang/js/src/Message.js
index 48813df7..fff20fbe 100644
--- a/lang/js/src/Message.js
+++ b/lang/js/src/Message.js
@@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ export class GPGME_Message {
     }
 
     set expected (value){
-        if (value === 'binary'){
+        if (value === 'uint8' || value === 'base64'){
             this._expected = value;
         }
     }
diff --git a/lang/js/src/gpgmejs.js b/lang/js/src/gpgmejs.js
index e0398423..ac640308 100644
--- a/lang/js/src/gpgmejs.js
+++ b/lang/js/src/gpgmejs.js
@@ -31,7 +31,11 @@ import { createSignature } from './Signature';
 /**
  * @typedef {Object} decrypt_result
  * @property {String|Uint8Array} data The decrypted data
- * @property {Boolean} binary indicating whether data is an Uint8Array.
+ * @property {String} format Indicating how the data was converted after being
+ * received from gpgme.
+ *      'string': Data was decoded into an utf-8 string,
+ *      'base64': Data was not processed and is a base64 string
+ *      'uint8': data was turned into a Uint8Array
  * @property {Boolean} is_mime (optional) the data claims to be a MIME
  * object.
  * @property {String} file_name (optional) the original file name
@@ -51,8 +55,8 @@ import { createSignature } from './Signature';
 /**
  * @typedef {Object} encrypt_result The result of an encrypt operation
  * @property {String} data The encrypted message
- * @property {Boolean} binary Indicating whether returning payload data is an
- * Uint8Array.
+ * @property {Boolean} base64 Indicating whether returning payload data is
+ * base64 encoded
  */
 
 /**
@@ -187,8 +191,9 @@ export class GpgME {
     * Strings and Objects with a getText method
     * @param {Boolean} options.base64 (optional) false if the data is an
     * armored block, true if it is base64 encoded binary data
-    * @param {Boolean} options.binary (optional) if true, treat the decoded
-    * data as binary, and return the data as Uint8Array
+    * @param {String} options.expect (optional) can be set to 'uint8' or
+    * 'base64'. Does no extra decoding on the data, and returns the decoded
+    * data as either Uint8Array or unprocessed(base64 encoded) string.
     * @returns {Promise<decrypt_result>} Decrypted Message and information
     * @async
     */
@@ -207,14 +212,14 @@ export class GpgME {
         if (options.base64 === true){
             msg.setParameter('base64', true);
         }
-        if (options.binary === true){
-            msg.expected = 'binary';
+        if (options.expect === 'base64' || options.expect === 'uint8'){
+            msg.expected = options.expect;
         }
         putData(msg, options.data);
         return new Promise(function (resolve, reject){
             msg.post().then(function (result){
                 let _result = { data: result.data };
-                _result.binary = result.binary ? true: false;
+                _result.format = result.format ? result.format : null;
                 if (result.hasOwnProperty('dec_info')){
                     _result.is_mime = result.dec_info.is_mime ? true: false;
                     if (result.dec_info.file_name) {