diff --git a/phpgwapi/inc/class.translation_sql.inc.php b/phpgwapi/inc/class.translation_sql.inc.php
index 6cd61c8184..47e1e4e911 100644
--- a/phpgwapi/inc/class.translation_sql.inc.php
+++ b/phpgwapi/inc/class.translation_sql.inc.php
@@ -227,7 +227,7 @@
 		*/
 		function convert($data,$from='iso-8859-1',$to='utf-8')
 		{
-			if ($from == $to)
+			if ($from == $to || !$from || !$to)
 			{
 				return $data;
 			}