diff --git a/src/lib/Persistence/Legacy/Content/FieldValue/Converter/RelationListConverter.php b/src/lib/Persistence/Legacy/Content/FieldValue/Converter/RelationListConverter.php
index 9a3dc4a568..f357452cd2 100644
--- a/src/lib/Persistence/Legacy/Content/FieldValue/Converter/RelationListConverter.php
+++ b/src/lib/Persistence/Legacy/Content/FieldValue/Converter/RelationListConverter.php
@@ -86,7 +86,7 @@ public function toFieldValue(StorageFieldValue $value, FieldValue $fieldValue)
         $priorityByContentId = [];
 
         $dom = new DOMDocument('1.0', 'utf-8');
-        if ($dom->loadXML($value->dataText) === true) {
+        if ($value->dataText != "" && $dom->loadXML($value->dataText) === true) {
             foreach ($dom->getElementsByTagName('relation-item') as $relationItem) {
                 /* @var \DOMElement $relationItem */
                 $priorityByContentId[$relationItem->getAttribute('contentobject-id')] =