diff --git a/shared-mime-info-spec.xml b/shared-mime-info-spec.xml
index ea43b54..f87a886 100644
--- a/shared-mime-info-spec.xml
+++ b/shared-mime-info-spec.xml
@@ -428,7 +428,8 @@ with other information about the same type.
 	<sect2>
 		<title>The MEDIA/SUBTYPE.xml files</title>
 		<para>
-These files have a <userinput>mime-type</userinput> element as the root node. The format is
+On case-sensitive filesystems, these files will be named in lower case (MIME type names are case
+insensitive). They have a <userinput>mime-type</userinput> element as the root node. The format is
 as described above. They are created by merging all the <userinput>mime-type</userinput>
 elements from the source files and creating one output file per MIME type. Each file may contain
 information from multiple source files. The <userinput>magic</userinput>,
diff --git a/update-mime-database.c b/update-mime-database.c
index 86e7365..e879db5 100644
--- a/update-mime-database.c
+++ b/update-mime-database.c
@@ -722,6 +722,7 @@ static void load_source_file(const char *filename)
 		Type *type = NULL;
 		char *type_name = NULL;
 		GError *error = NULL;
+		int i;
 
 		if (node->type != XML_ELEMENT_NODE)
 			continue;
@@ -743,6 +744,9 @@ static void load_source_file(const char *filename)
 
 		if (type_name)
 		{
+			for (i=0; type_name[i]; i++) {
+				type_name[i] = tolower(type_name[i]);
+			}
 			type = get_type(type_name, &error);
 			xmlFree(type_name);
 		}