diff --git a/resources/text/CHANGELOG b/resources/text/CHANGELOG
index 821a3b04b..fa6b1551d 100644
--- a/resources/text/CHANGELOG
+++ b/resources/text/CHANGELOG
@@ -2,6 +2,8 @@
 —————
 
 Fixed:
+▪ Bad handling of null/empty strings when inserting messages into DB. (bug #169)
+▪ Bad conversion of "created on" date/time in TT-RSS plugin. (bug #172)
 ▪ Missing obligatory attribute in OPML 2.0 files. (bug #166)
 
 3.5.5
diff --git a/src/core/message.cpp b/src/core/message.cpp
index 46d1709fc..eb94f41ac 100755
--- a/src/core/message.cpp
+++ b/src/core/message.cpp
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ QString Enclosures::encodeEnclosuresToString(const QList<Enclosure>& enclosures)
 }
 
 Message::Message() {
-  m_title = m_url = m_author = m_contents = m_feedId = m_customId = m_customHash = QSL("");
+  m_title = m_url = m_author = m_contents = m_feedId = m_customId = m_customHash = "";
   m_enclosures = QList<Enclosure>();
   m_accountId = m_id = 0;
   m_isRead = m_isImportant = false;
diff --git a/src/miscellaneous/databasequeries.cpp b/src/miscellaneous/databasequeries.cpp
index a038878e5..dc7188d6c 100755
--- a/src/miscellaneous/databasequeries.cpp
+++ b/src/miscellaneous/databasequeries.cpp
@@ -30,6 +30,8 @@
 #include <QUrl>
 #include <QVariant>
 
+#define EMPT_STR_NULL(x) ( ## x ## .isNull() ? "" : x)
+
 bool DatabaseQueries::markMessagesReadUnread(QSqlDatabase db, const QStringList& ids, RootItem::ReadStatus read) {
   QSqlQuery q(db);
 
@@ -516,10 +518,10 @@ int DatabaseQueries::updateMessages(QSqlDatabase db,
     if (message.m_customId.isEmpty()) {
       // We need to recognize existing messages according URL & AUTHOR & TITLE.
       // NOTE: This particularly concerns messages from standard account.
-      query_select_with_url.bindValue(QSL(":feed"), feed_custom_id);
-      query_select_with_url.bindValue(QSL(":title"), message.m_title);
-      query_select_with_url.bindValue(QSL(":url"), message.m_url);
-      query_select_with_url.bindValue(QSL(":author"), message.m_author);
+      query_select_with_url.bindValue(QSL(":feed"), EMPT_STR_NULL(feed_custom_id));
+      query_select_with_url.bindValue(QSL(":title"), EMPT_STR_NULL(message.m_title));
+      query_select_with_url.bindValue(QSL(":url"), EMPT_STR_NULL(message.m_url));
+      query_select_with_url.bindValue(QSL(":author"), EMPT_STR_NULL(message.m_author));
       query_select_with_url.bindValue(QSL(":account_id"), account_id);
 
       qDebug("Checking if message with title '%s', url '%s' and author '%s' is present in DB.",
@@ -545,7 +547,7 @@ int DatabaseQueries::updateMessages(QSqlDatabase db,
       // We can recognize existing messages via their custom ID.
       // NOTE: This concerns messages from custom accounts, like TT-RSS or ownCloud News.
       query_select_with_id.bindValue(QSL(":account_id"), account_id);
-      query_select_with_id.bindValue(QSL(":custom_id"), message.m_customId);
+      query_select_with_id.bindValue(QSL(":custom_id"), EMPT_STR_NULL(message.m_customId));
 
       qDebug("Checking if message with custom ID %s is present in DB.", qPrintable(message.m_customId));
 
@@ -582,15 +584,15 @@ int DatabaseQueries::updateMessages(QSqlDatabase db,
                   /* 2 */ (message.m_createdFromFeed && message.m_created.toMSecsSinceEpoch() != date_existing_message
                            && message.m_contents != contents_existing_message)) {
         // Message exists, it is changed, update it.
-        query_update.bindValue(QSL(":title"), message.m_title);
+        query_update.bindValue(QSL(":title"), EMPT_STR_NULL(message.m_title));
         query_update.bindValue(QSL(":is_read"), (int) message.m_isRead);
         query_update.bindValue(QSL(":is_important"), (int) message.m_isImportant);
-        query_update.bindValue(QSL(":url"), message.m_url);
-        query_update.bindValue(QSL(":author"), message.m_author);
+        query_update.bindValue(QSL(":url"), EMPT_STR_NULL(message.m_url));
+        query_update.bindValue(QSL(":author"), EMPT_STR_NULL(message.m_author));
         query_update.bindValue(QSL(":date_created"), message.m_created.toMSecsSinceEpoch());
-        query_update.bindValue(QSL(":contents"), message.m_contents);
+        query_update.bindValue(QSL(":contents"), EMPT_STR_NULL(message.m_contents));
         query_update.bindValue(QSL(":enclosures"), Enclosures::encodeEnclosuresToString(message.m_enclosures));
-        query_update.bindValue(QSL(":feed"), message.m_feedId);
+        query_update.bindValue(QSL(":feed"), EMPT_STR_NULL(feed_id_existing_message));
         query_update.bindValue(QSL(":id"), id_existing_message);
         *any_message_changed = true;
 
@@ -610,17 +612,17 @@ int DatabaseQueries::updateMessages(QSqlDatabase db,
     }
     else {
       // Message with this URL is not fetched in this feed yet.
-      query_insert.bindValue(QSL(":feed"), feed_custom_id);
-      query_insert.bindValue(QSL(":title"), message.m_title);
+      query_insert.bindValue(QSL(":feed"), EMPT_STR_NULL(feed_custom_id));
+      query_insert.bindValue(QSL(":title"), EMPT_STR_NULL(message.m_title));
       query_insert.bindValue(QSL(":is_read"), (int) message.m_isRead);
       query_insert.bindValue(QSL(":is_important"), (int) message.m_isImportant);
-      query_insert.bindValue(QSL(":url"), message.m_url);
-      query_insert.bindValue(QSL(":author"), message.m_author);
+      query_insert.bindValue(QSL(":url"), EMPT_STR_NULL( message.m_url));
+      query_insert.bindValue(QSL(":author"), EMPT_STR_NULL(message.m_author));
       query_insert.bindValue(QSL(":date_created"), message.m_created.toMSecsSinceEpoch());
-      query_insert.bindValue(QSL(":contents"), message.m_contents);
+      query_insert.bindValue(QSL(":contents"), EMPT_STR_NULL(message.m_contents));
       query_insert.bindValue(QSL(":enclosures"), Enclosures::encodeEnclosuresToString(message.m_enclosures));
-      query_insert.bindValue(QSL(":custom_id"), message.m_customId);
-      query_insert.bindValue(QSL(":custom_hash"), message.m_customHash);
+      query_insert.bindValue(QSL(":custom_id"), EMPT_STR_NULL(message.m_customId));
+      query_insert.bindValue(QSL(":custom_hash"), EMPT_STR_NULL(message.m_customHash));
       query_insert.bindValue(QSL(":account_id"), account_id);
 
       if (query_insert.exec() && query_insert.numRowsAffected() == 1) {
diff --git a/src/services/standard/atomparser.cpp b/src/services/standard/atomparser.cpp
index d973d86ab..7740df34b 100755
--- a/src/services/standard/atomparser.cpp
+++ b/src/services/standard/atomparser.cpp
@@ -59,6 +59,7 @@ Message AtomParser::extractMessage(const QDomElement& msg_element, QDateTime cur
   new_message.m_title = qApp->web()->stripTags(title);
   new_message.m_contents = summary;
   new_message.m_author = qApp->web()->escapeHtml(messageAuthor(msg_element));
+
   QString updated = textsFromPath(msg_element, m_atomNamespace, QSL("updated"), true).join(QSL(", "));
 
   if (updated.isEmpty()) {