diff --git a/fdroid b/fdroid
index b316346a..59fc69a0 100755
--- a/fdroid
+++ b/fdroid
@@ -137,7 +137,7 @@ def main():
     mod = __import__('fdroidserver.' + command, None, None, [command])
 
     system_langcode, system_encoding = locale.getdefaultlocale()
-    if system_encoding.lower() not in ('utf-8', 'utf8'):
+    if system_encoding is None or system_encoding.lower() not in ('utf-8', 'utf8'):
         logging.warn(_("Encoding is set to '{enc}' fdroid might run "
                        "into encoding issues. Please set it to 'UTF-8' "
                        "for best results.".format(enc=system_encoding)))