diff --git a/android/app/src/main/java/org/mozilla/magnet/api/Utils.java b/android/app/src/main/java/org/mozilla/magnet/api/Utils.java
index a89c6210..d2c201f4 100644
--- a/android/app/src/main/java/org/mozilla/magnet/api/Utils.java
+++ b/android/app/src/main/java/org/mozilla/magnet/api/Utils.java
@@ -83,10 +83,9 @@ public static WritableMap jsonToWritableMap(JSONObject jsonObject) {
             return null;
         }
 
-
         Iterator<String> iterator = jsonObject.keys();
         if (!iterator.hasNext()) {
-            return null;
+            return writableMap;
         }
 
         while (iterator.hasNext()) {
@@ -155,4 +154,4 @@ public static WritableArray jsonArrayToWritableArray(JSONArray jsonArray) {
 
         return writableArray;
     }
-}
\ No newline at end of file
+}
diff --git a/android/app/src/main/java/org/mozilla/magnet/magnetapi/ApiPreferences.java b/android/app/src/main/java/org/mozilla/magnet/magnetapi/ApiPreferences.java
index ceac3015..0cffcdae 100644
--- a/android/app/src/main/java/org/mozilla/magnet/magnetapi/ApiPreferences.java
+++ b/android/app/src/main/java/org/mozilla/magnet/magnetapi/ApiPreferences.java
@@ -28,7 +28,13 @@ class ApiPreferences extends Api {
      */
     @Override
     public void get(String aPath, Callback aCallback) {
-        aCallback.resolve(getCache().getJsonObject(PREFERENCES_STORE_KEY));
+        JSONObject json = getCache().getJsonObject(PREFERENCES_STORE_KEY);
+
+        if (json == null) {
+          json = new JSONObject();
+        }
+
+        aCallback.resolve(json);
     }
 
     /**
diff --git a/lib/app.js b/lib/app.js
index 5e0b54bc..8095d3af 100644
--- a/lib/app.js
+++ b/lib/app.js
@@ -199,7 +199,7 @@ class App extends React.Component {
     debug('inflate user flags');
     return api.get('preferences')
       .then(prefs => {
-        Object.keys(prefs ).forEach(key => {
+        Object.keys(prefs).forEach(key => {
           debug('got user flag', key, prefs[key]);
           const value = parseBoolean(prefs[key]);
           if (value == null) return;