diff --git a/renderdoc/strings/string_utils.cpp b/renderdoc/strings/string_utils.cpp
index ec061e2c5..75e648121 100644
--- a/renderdoc/strings/string_utils.cpp
+++ b/renderdoc/strings/string_utils.cpp
@@ -141,7 +141,7 @@ rdcstr strip_extension(const rdcstr &path)
   return path.substr(0, offs);
 }
 
-rdcstr strip_nonbasic(rdcstr &str)
+void strip_nonbasic(rdcstr &str)
 {
   for(char &c : str)
   {
diff --git a/renderdoc/strings/string_utils.h b/renderdoc/strings/string_utils.h
index 07901f37f..7697be934 100644
--- a/renderdoc/strings/string_utils.h
+++ b/renderdoc/strings/string_utils.h
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ rdcstr strip_extension(const rdcstr &path);
 // remove everything but alphanumeric ' ' and '.'
 // It replaces everything else with _
 // for logging strings where they might contain garbage characters
-rdcstr strip_nonbasic(rdcstr &str);
+void strip_nonbasic(rdcstr &str);
 
 void split(const rdcstr &in, rdcarray<rdcstr> &out, const char sep);
 void merge(const rdcarray<rdcstr> &in, rdcstr &out, const char sep);