diff --git a/lib/gitlab/encode.rb b/lib/gitlab/encode.rb
index 8b6ffa3d..0787434b 100644
--- a/lib/gitlab/encode.rb
+++ b/lib/gitlab/encode.rb
@@ -27,7 +27,8 @@ module Gitlab
 
     # Prevent app from crash cause of encoding errors
     rescue
-      "--broken encoding: #{detect[:encoding]}"
+      encoding = detect ? detect[:encoding] : "unknown"
+      "--broken encoding: #{encoding}"
     end
 
     def detect_encoding message