diff --git a/src/filetypes.c b/src/filetypes.c
index 2c354b13c..be7b4d4ea 100644
--- a/src/filetypes.c
+++ b/src/filetypes.c
@@ -900,6 +900,8 @@ GtkFileFilter *filetypes_create_file_filter(filetype *ft)
 // Indicates whether there is a tag parser for the filetype or not.
 gboolean filetype_has_tags(filetype *ft)
 {
+	g_return_val_if_fail(ft != NULL, FALSE);
+
 	return ft->lang >= 0;
 }
 
diff --git a/src/symbols.c b/src/symbols.c
index aceefc2ed..cca2bd6d1 100644
--- a/src/symbols.c
+++ b/src/symbols.c
@@ -693,7 +693,7 @@ static filetype *detect_global_tags_filetype(const gchar *utf8_filename)
 	}
 	g_free(shortname);
 
-	if (filetypes[FILETYPE_ID(ft)]->lang < 0)
+	if (ft == NULL || ! filetype_has_tags(ft))
 		return NULL;
 	return ft;
 }