diff --git a/src/register.c b/src/register.c
index 267f9b38324b34aa7eed581ba8eb9ce0d6597187..876bdfb9ba2e5632ed4d3881f92768893873db96 100644
--- a/src/register.c
+++ b/src/register.c
@@ -304,7 +304,7 @@ get_register(
 	if (copy)
 	{
 	    // If we run out of memory some or all of the lines are empty.
-	    if (reg->y_size == 0)
+	    if (reg->y_size == 0 || y_current->y_array == NULL)
 		reg->y_array = NULL;
 	    else
 		reg->y_array = ALLOC_MULT(char_u *, reg->y_size);
diff --git a/src/testdir/test_registers.vim b/src/testdir/test_registers.vim
index d9cf7ed403a4d9d67c376b9bc0816a5a96745b62..9eb33e4c71fb5bc548a00e141521314e82be1116 100644
--- a/src/testdir/test_registers.vim
+++ b/src/testdir/test_registers.vim
@@ -167,3 +167,20 @@ func Test_recording_esc_sequence()
     set t_F2=
   endif
 endfunc
+
+" This was causing a crash because y_append was ending up being NULL
+func Test_zero_y_append()
+  " Run in a separate Vim instance because changing 'encoding' may cause
+  " trouble for later tests.
+  let lines =<< trim END
+      d
+      silent ?n
+      next <sfile>
+      so
+      sil! norm 0V€PSP
+      set enc=latin1
+       
+  END
+  call writefile(lines, 'XTest_zero_y_append', 'D')
+  call RunVim([], [], '-u NONE -i NONE -e -s -S XTest_zero_y_append -c qa\!')
+endfunc