diff --git a/gtk/gtkfilefilter.c b/gtk/gtkfilefilter.c
index cd19fb688c..84a3613bc2 100644
--- a/gtk/gtkfilefilter.c
+++ b/gtk/gtkfilefilter.c
@@ -299,7 +299,7 @@ parser_end_element (GMarkupParseContext *context,
 {
   SubParserData *data = (SubParserData*)user_data;
 
-  if (data->string)
+  if (data->string != NULL && data->string->len != 0)
     {
       switch (data->type)
         {