diff --git a/client.c b/client.c
index c0df7a7e7..ff859c3dc 100644
--- a/client.c
+++ b/client.c
@@ -768,7 +768,7 @@ client_markup_on_elem(markup_parser_data_t *p, const char *elem,
                       const char **names, const char **values)
 {
     assert(!a_strcmp(elem, "title"));
-    buffer_add_xmlescaped(&p->text, p->priv);
+    buffer_add_xmlescaped(&p->text, NONULL(p->priv));
 }
 
 /** Parse a markup string which contains special markup sequence relative to a
diff --git a/common/markup.c b/common/markup.c
index 9de51f68f..e34c585a7 100644
--- a/common/markup.c
+++ b/common/markup.c
@@ -113,8 +113,10 @@ markup_parse_text(GMarkupParseContext *context __attribute__ ((unused)),
 {
     markup_parser_data_t *p = (markup_parser_data_t *) user_data;
 
-    buffer_grow(&p->text, text_len);
-    buffer_add_xmlescaped(&p->text, text);
+    if (text_len) {
+        buffer_grow(&p->text, text_len);
+        buffer_add_xmlescaped(&p->text, text);
+    }
 }
 
 /** Create a markup_parser_data_t structure with elements list.
diff --git a/widgets/taglist.c b/widgets/taglist.c
index f7c5ef242..e883cd7cc 100644
--- a/widgets/taglist.c
+++ b/widgets/taglist.c
@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ tag_markup_on_elem(markup_parser_data_t *p, const char *elem,
                       const char **names, const char **values)
 {
     assert(!a_strcmp(elem, "title"));
-    buffer_add_xmlescaped(&p->text, p->priv);
+    buffer_add_xmlescaped(&p->text, NONULL(p->priv));
 }