diff --git a/openlp/core/ui/displaytagtab.py b/openlp/core/ui/displaytagtab.py
index 1feb74b48..3d6cd813d 100644
--- a/openlp/core/ui/displaytagtab.py
+++ b/openlp/core/ui/displaytagtab.py
@@ -57,10 +57,12 @@ class DisplayTagTab(SettingsTab):
         user_expands = QtCore.QSettings().value(u'displayTags/html_tags',
             QtCore.QVariant(u'')).toString()
         # cPickle only accepts str not unicode strings
-        user_tags = cPickle.loads(str(unicode(user_expands).encode(u'utf8')))
-        # If we have some user ones added them as well
-        for t in user_tags:
-            DisplayTags.add_html_tag(t)
+        user_expands_string = str(unicode(user_expands).encode(u'utf8'))
+        if user_expands_string:
+            user_tags = cPickle.loads(user_expand_string)
+            # If we have some user ones added them as well
+            for t in user_tags:
+                DisplayTags.add_html_tag(t)
         self.selected = -1
 
     def setupUi(self):