diff --git a/Tusker/Screens/Timeline/TimelineViewController.swift b/Tusker/Screens/Timeline/TimelineViewController.swift
index e6620bc7..8ca57ed8 100644
--- a/Tusker/Screens/Timeline/TimelineViewController.swift
+++ b/Tusker/Screens/Timeline/TimelineViewController.swift
@@ -315,7 +315,7 @@ class TimelineViewController: UIViewController, TimelineLikeCollectionViewContro
             } else {
                 // I'm not sure whether this should move into TimelineLikeController/TimelineLikeCollectionViewController
                 let (_, presentItems) = await (controller.loadNewer(), try? loadInitial())
-                if let presentItems {
+                if let presentItems, !presentItems.isEmpty {
                     insertPresentItemsIfNecessary(presentItems)
                 }
             }
@@ -334,6 +334,9 @@ class TimelineViewController: UIViewController, TimelineLikeCollectionViewContro
     
     private func insertPresentItemsIfNecessary(_ presentItems: [String]) {
         var snapshot = dataSource.snapshot()
+        guard snapshot.indexOfSection(.statuses) != nil else {
+            return
+        }
         let currentItems = snapshot.itemIdentifiers(inSection: .statuses)
         if case .status(id: let firstID, state: _) = currentItems.first,
            // if there's no overlap between presentItems and the existing items in the data source, insert the present items and prompt the user