diff --git a/lib/ansible/modules/cloud/vmware/vsphere_copy.py b/lib/ansible/modules/cloud/vmware/vsphere_copy.py
index 84ddce5d9b..3c876b10ee 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/modules/cloud/vmware/vsphere_copy.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/modules/cloud/vmware/vsphere_copy.py
@@ -100,14 +100,14 @@ import socket
 import traceback
 
 from ansible.module_utils.basic import AnsibleModule
-from ansible.module_utils.six.moves.urllib.parse import urlencode
+from ansible.module_utils.six.moves.urllib.parse import urlencode, quote
 from ansible.module_utils._text import to_native
 from ansible.module_utils.urls import open_url
 
 
 def vmware_path(datastore, datacenter, path):
     ''' Constructs a URL path that VSphere accepts reliably '''
-    path = "/folder/%s" % path.lstrip("/")
+    path = "/folder/%s" % quote(path.lstrip("/"))
     # Due to a software bug in vSphere, it fails to handle ampersand in datacenter names
     # The solution is to do what vSphere does (when browsing) and double-encode ampersands, maybe others ?
     datacenter = datacenter.replace('&', '%26')