diff --git a/core/modules/system/system.install b/core/modules/system/system.install
index c22f9759f026a328edb59203fb7f9d99727b82bd..aa16d00bdc58e619a655422faae4b9a971d0af11 100644
--- a/core/modules/system/system.install
+++ b/core/modules/system/system.install
@@ -872,7 +872,6 @@ function system_schema() {
         'length' => 255,
         'not null' => TRUE,
         'default' => '',
-        'binary' => TRUE,
       ),
       'uri' => array(
         'description' => 'The URI to access the file (either local or remote).',
@@ -2062,6 +2061,19 @@ function system_update_8017() {
   ));
 }
 
+/**
+ * Revert {file_managed}.filename changed to a binary column.
+ */
+function system_update_8018() {
+  db_change_field('file_managed', 'filename', 'filename', array(
+    'description' => 'Name of the file with no path components. This may differ from the basename of the URI if the file is renamed to avoid overwriting an existing file.',
+    'type' => 'varchar',
+    'length' => 255,
+    'not null' => TRUE,
+    'default' => '',
+  ));
+}
+
 /**
  * @} End of "defgroup updates-7.x-to-8.x".
  * The next series of updates should start at 9000.