diff --git a/browser/modules/ReaderParent.jsm b/browser/modules/ReaderParent.jsm
index 4fd40f1bc0f1..dd18eb1a904d 100644
--- a/browser/modules/ReaderParent.jsm
+++ b/browser/modules/ReaderParent.jsm
@@ -214,6 +214,9 @@ let ReaderParent = {
    * @resolves JS object representing the article, or null if no article is found.
    */
   _getArticle: Task.async(function* (url, browser) {
-    return yield ReaderMode.downloadAndParseDocument(url);
+    return yield ReaderMode.downloadAndParseDocument(url).catch(e => {
+      Cu.reportError("Error downloading and parsing document: " + e);
+      return null;
+    });
   })
 };
diff --git a/mobile/android/chrome/content/Reader.js b/mobile/android/chrome/content/Reader.js
index 1f54ee0a9f29..afc96e5893dc 100644
--- a/mobile/android/chrome/content/Reader.js
+++ b/mobile/android/chrome/content/Reader.js
@@ -287,7 +287,10 @@ let Reader = {
 
     // Article hasn't been found in the cache, we need to
     // download the page and parse the article out of it.
-    return yield ReaderMode.downloadAndParseDocument(url);
+    return yield ReaderMode.downloadAndParseDocument(url).catch(e => {
+      Cu.reportError("Error downloading and parsing document: " + e);
+      return null;
+    });;
   }),
 
   _getSavedArticle: function(browser) {
diff --git a/toolkit/components/reader/ReaderMode.jsm b/toolkit/components/reader/ReaderMode.jsm
index f46a447c0702..b4cab82eea05 100644
--- a/toolkit/components/reader/ReaderMode.jsm
+++ b/toolkit/components/reader/ReaderMode.jsm
@@ -131,6 +131,10 @@ this.ReaderMode = {
         }
 
         let doc = xhr.responseXML;
+        if (!doc) {
+          reject("Reader mode XHR didn't return a document");
+          return;
+        }
 
         // Manually follow a meta refresh tag if one exists.
         let meta = doc.querySelector("meta[http-equiv=refresh]");