diff --git a/mail_debrand/models/mail_render_mixinANDmail_mail.py b/mail_debrand/models/mail_render_mixinANDmail_mail.py
index 61f67e7d3..d62f2a814 100644
--- a/mail_debrand/models/mail_render_mixinANDmail_mail.py
+++ b/mail_debrand/models/mail_render_mixinANDmail_mail.py
@@ -15,17 +15,20 @@ class MailRenderMixin(models.AbstractModel):
     def remove_href_odoo(self, value, remove_parent=True, remove_before=False):
         if len(value) < 20:
             return value
+        # value can be bytes type; ensure we get a proper string
+        if type(value) is bytes:
+            value = value.decode()
         has_odoo_link = re.search(r"<a\s(.*)odoo\.com", value, flags=re.IGNORECASE)
         if has_odoo_link:
             tree = etree.HTML(
                 value
-            )  # html with brlken links   tree = etree.fromstring(value) just xml
+            )  # html with broken links   tree = etree.fromstring(value) just xml
             odoo_achors = tree.xpath('//a[contains(@href,"odoo.com")]')
             for elem in odoo_achors:
                 parent = elem.getparent()
                 previous = elem.getprevious()
 
-                if remove_before and not remove_parent and previous:
+                if remove_before and not remove_parent and len(previous):
                     # remove 'using' that is before <a and after </span>
                     bytes_text = etree.tostring(
                         previous, pretty_print=True, method="html"
@@ -33,7 +36,7 @@ class MailRenderMixin(models.AbstractModel):
                     only_what_is_in_tags = bytes_text[: bytes_text.rfind(b">") + 1]
                     data_formatted = html.fromstring(only_what_is_in_tags)
                     parent.replace(previous, data_formatted)
-                if len(parent.getparent()) and remove_parent:
+                if remove_parent and len(parent.getparent()):
                     # anchor <a href odoo has a parent powered by that must be removed
                     parent.getparent().remove(parent)
                 else:
diff --git a/mail_debrand/tests/test_mail_debrand.py b/mail_debrand/tests/test_mail_debrand.py
index 185230179..954b8c6d7 100644
--- a/mail_debrand/tests/test_mail_debrand.py
+++ b/mail_debrand/tests/test_mail_debrand.py
@@ -13,6 +13,17 @@ class TestMailDebrand(common.TransactionCase):
         self.default_template = self.env.ref("mail.message_notification_email")
         self.paynow_template = self.env.ref("mail.mail_notification_paynow")
 
+    def test_debrand_binary_value(self):
+        """
+        Regression test: ensure binary input is gracefully handled
+        """
+        try:
+            self.env["mail.template"].remove_href_odoo(
+                b"Binary value with more than 20 characters"
+            )
+        except TypeError:
+            self.fail("Debranding binary string raised TypeError")
+
     def test_default_debrand(self):
         self.assertIn("using", self.default_template.arch)
         res = self.env["mail.template"]._render_template(