diff --git a/libgimpconfig/gimpconfig-serialize.c b/libgimpconfig/gimpconfig-serialize.c
index c9f19eb258..7960b35cbe 100644
--- a/libgimpconfig/gimpconfig-serialize.c
+++ b/libgimpconfig/gimpconfig-serialize.c
@@ -576,10 +576,13 @@ gimp_config_serialize_value (const GValue *value,
     {
       const gchar *cstr = g_value_get_string (value);
 
+      if (! cstr)
+        return FALSE;
+
       if (escaped)
-        gimp_config_string_append_escaped (str, cstr ? cstr : "");
+        gimp_config_string_append_escaped (str, cstr);
       else
-        g_string_append (str, cstr ? cstr : "");
+        g_string_append (str, cstr);
 
       return TRUE;
     }