diff --git a/telethon/telegram_client.py b/telethon/telegram_client.py
index 9e192028..fdd96d47 100644
--- a/telethon/telegram_client.py
+++ b/telethon/telegram_client.py
@@ -873,7 +873,7 @@ class TelegramClient(TelegramBareClient):
         """
         # First check if the user passed an iterable, in which case
         # we may want to send as an album if all are photo files.
-        if hasattr(file, '__iter__'):
+        if hasattr(file, '__iter__') and not isinstance(file, (str, bytes)):
             # Convert to tuple so we can iterate several times
             file = tuple(x for x in file)
             if all(utils.is_image(x) for x in file):
@@ -1321,7 +1321,7 @@ class TelegramClient(TelegramBareClient):
             ``User``, ``Chat`` or ``Channel`` corresponding to the input
             entity.
         """
-        if not isinstance(entity, str) and hasattr(entity, '__iter__'):
+        if hasattr(entity, '__iter__') and not isinstance(entity, str):
             single = False
         else:
             single = True