diff --git a/src/utils.cpp b/src/utils.cpp
index 5ae76ed00d..8bd36a8065 100644
--- a/src/utils.cpp
+++ b/src/utils.cpp
@@ -862,6 +862,7 @@ std::string utils::get_potential_date(const std::string &path, const std::string
   reader.ignore_comments = false;
 
   char *line = reader.next_line();
+  if (line == nullptr) return "";
   Tokenizer words(line);
   while (words.has_next()) {
     if (words.next() == "DATE:") {
@@ -881,6 +882,7 @@ std::string utils::get_potential_units(const std::string &path, const std::strin
   reader.ignore_comments = false;
 
   char *line = reader.next_line();
+  if (line == nullptr) return "";
   Tokenizer words(line);
   while (words.has_next()) {
     if (words.next() == "UNITS:") {