diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 34ac1a52..10736f35 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@
 
     <groupId>org.embl.mobie</groupId>
     <artifactId>mobie-viewer-fiji</artifactId>
-    <version>5.5.1</version>
+    <version>5.5.3</version>
     <!-- mvn clean install -Dmaven.test.skip=true -Dscijava.app.directory=/Users/tischer/Desktop/Fiji/Fiji-MoBIE.app -->
 
     <!--  ../scijava-scripts/release-version.sh - -skip-version-check - -skip-license-update -->
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/embl/mobie/lib/bdv/overlay/AnnotatedRegionsOverlay.java b/src/main/java/org/embl/mobie/lib/bdv/overlay/AnnotatedRegionsOverlay.java
index 42f72526..4f258228 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/embl/mobie/lib/bdv/overlay/AnnotatedRegionsOverlay.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/embl/mobie/lib/bdv/overlay/AnnotatedRegionsOverlay.java
@@ -88,6 +88,9 @@ public void close()
 	@Override
 	protected synchronized void draw( Graphics2D g )
 	{
+		if ( annotationColumn == null || annotations == null || annotations.isEmpty() )
+			return;
+
 		if ( viewerTransform != null )
 		{
 			start = System.currentTimeMillis();
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/embl/mobie/lib/bdv/overlay/AnnotatedSegmentsOrSpotsOverlay.java b/src/main/java/org/embl/mobie/lib/bdv/overlay/AnnotatedSegmentsOrSpotsOverlay.java
index 3b9782c2..9a50274f 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/embl/mobie/lib/bdv/overlay/AnnotatedSegmentsOrSpotsOverlay.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/embl/mobie/lib/bdv/overlay/AnnotatedSegmentsOrSpotsOverlay.java
@@ -85,7 +85,7 @@ public void close()
 	@Override
 	protected synchronized void draw( Graphics2D g )
 	{
-		if ( annotations == null || annotations.size() == 0 )
+		if ( annotationColumn == null || annotations == null || annotations.size() == 0 )
 			return;
 
 		if ( viewerTransform != null )
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/embl/mobie/lib/table/TableView.java b/src/main/java/org/embl/mobie/lib/table/TableView.java
index 83fe32e1..4cb8112a 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/embl/mobie/lib/table/TableView.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/embl/mobie/lib/table/TableView.java
@@ -497,6 +497,9 @@ private void overlayAnnotationDialog()
 					jTable,
 					"Annotation column" );
 
+			if ( annotationColumn == null )
+				return;
+
 			if ( annotationOverlay != null )
 			{
 				annotationOverlay.close();