diff --git a/src/services/handlers.js b/src/services/handlers.js
index 8f5baafa9..5fad5bc03 100644
--- a/src/services/handlers.js
+++ b/src/services/handlers.js
@@ -66,7 +66,11 @@ eventService.subscribe(eventService.ENTITY_CREATED, ({ entityName, entity }) =>
                 return;
             }
 
-            note.setContent(targetNote.getContent());
+            const targetNoteContent = targetNote.getContent();
+
+            if (targetNoteContent) {
+                note.setContent(targetNoteContent);
+            }
         }
         else if (entity.type === 'label' && entity.name === 'sorted') {
             treeService.sortNotesAlphabetically(entity.noteId);
diff --git a/src/services/sync_update.js b/src/services/sync_update.js
index 79ff2bc6a..d00e1c47f 100644
--- a/src/services/sync_update.js
+++ b/src/services/sync_update.js
@@ -99,8 +99,15 @@ function updateNoteContent(remoteEntity, sourceId) {
     const localEntity = sql.getRow("SELECT * FROM note_contents WHERE noteId = ?", [remoteEntity.noteId]);
 
     if (shouldWeUpdateEntity(localEntity, remoteEntity)) {
+        // we always use Buffer object which is different from normal saving - there we use simple string type for "string notes"
+        // the problem is that in general it's not possible to whether a note_content is string note or note (syncs can arrive out of order)
         remoteEntity.content = remoteEntity.content === null ? null : Buffer.from(remoteEntity.content, 'base64');
 
+        if (remoteEntity.content && remoteEntity.content.byteLength === 0) {
+            // there seems to be a bug which causes empty buffer to be stored as NULL which is then picked up as inconsistency
+            remoteEntity.content = "";
+        }
+
         sql.transactional(() => {
             sql.replace("note_contents", remoteEntity);