diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 1235802d..92cb6515 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 # Changelog
 
+## Unreleased
+
 ## 1.16.2 - 2021-01-09
 ### Additions
 - [derpibooru] add `search` and `gallery` extractors ([#862](https://github.com/mikf/gallery-dl/issues/862))
diff --git a/gallery_dl/postprocessor/metadata.py b/gallery_dl/postprocessor/metadata.py
index 27f9c034..71a67c17 100644
--- a/gallery_dl/postprocessor/metadata.py
+++ b/gallery_dl/postprocessor/metadata.py
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
 
-# Copyright 2019-2020 Mike Fährmann
+# Copyright 2019-2021 Mike Fährmann
 #
 # This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
 # it under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 as
@@ -86,7 +86,8 @@ class MetadataPP(PostProcessor):
         return (pathfmt.filename or "metadata") + "." + self.extension
 
     def _filename_custom(self, pathfmt):
-        return self._filename_fmt(pathfmt.kwdict)
+        return pathfmt.clean_path(pathfmt.clean_segment(
+            self._filename_fmt(pathfmt.kwdict)))
 
     def _filename_extfmt(self, pathfmt):
         kwdict = pathfmt.kwdict
diff --git a/gallery_dl/version.py b/gallery_dl/version.py
index c899f397..f1754b98 100644
--- a/gallery_dl/version.py
+++ b/gallery_dl/version.py
@@ -6,4 +6,4 @@
 # it under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 as
 # published by the Free Software Foundation.
 
-__version__ = "1.16.2"
+__version__ = "1.16.3-dev"
diff --git a/test/test_postprocessor.py b/test/test_postprocessor.py
index 74e87427..4e98a97c 100644
--- a/test/test_postprocessor.py
+++ b/test/test_postprocessor.py
@@ -306,14 +306,14 @@ class MetadataTest(BasePostprocessorTest):
 
     def test_metadata_filename(self):
         self._create({
-            "filename"        : "{category}_{filename}_meta.data",
+            "filename"        : "{category}_{filename}_/meta/\n\r.data",
             "extension-format": "json",
         })
 
         with patch("builtins.open", mock_open()) as m:
             self._trigger()
 
-        path = self.pathfmt.realdirectory + "test_file_meta.data"
+        path = self.pathfmt.realdirectory + "test_file__meta_.data"
         m.assert_called_once_with(path, "w", encoding="utf-8")
 
     @staticmethod