diff --git a/doc/changelog.asciidoc b/doc/changelog.asciidoc
index ab944412c..ae171b5c9 100644
--- a/doc/changelog.asciidoc
+++ b/doc/changelog.asciidoc
@@ -75,6 +75,7 @@ Fixed
 - When no documentation has been generated, the plaintext documentation now can
   be shown for more files such as `qute://help/userscripts.html`.
 - Crash when doing initial run on Wayland without XWayland
+- Crash when trying to load an empty session file.
 
 Removed
 ~~~~~~~
diff --git a/qutebrowser/misc/sessions.py b/qutebrowser/misc/sessions.py
index 358ab0c53..78adeb983 100644
--- a/qutebrowser/misc/sessions.py
+++ b/qutebrowser/misc/sessions.py
@@ -414,6 +414,9 @@ class SessionManager(QObject):
             raise SessionError(e)
 
         log.sessions.debug("Loading session {} from {}...".format(name, path))
+        if data is None:
+            raise SessionError("Got empty session file")
+
         for win in data['windows']:
             window = mainwindow.MainWindow(geometry=win['geometry'],
                                            private=win.get('private', None))