diff --git a/install/sql/incremental/upd_dev_collection.sql b/install/sql/incremental/upd_dev_collection.sql
index 1c4bd539d9f40e84cb199b320a2cac3b1c5607e3..1aaf51cd2affca613f26d33ba4d70a24488b07da 100644
--- a/install/sql/incremental/upd_dev_collection.sql
+++ b/install/sql/incremental/upd_dev_collection.sql
@@ -44,3 +44,6 @@ ALTER TABLE `web_domain` DROP COLUMN `enable_spdy`;
 
 -- was missing in incremental, inserted for fixing older installations
 ALTER TABLE `web_domain` ADD `folder_directive_snippets` TEXT NULL AFTER `https_port`;
+
+ALTER TABLE `web_domain` CHANGE `apache_directives` `apache_directives` mediumtext NULL DEFAULT NULL;
+ALTER TABLE `web_domain` CHANGE `nginx_directives` `nginx_directives` mediumtext NULL DEFAULT NULL;
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/install/sql/ispconfig3.sql b/install/sql/ispconfig3.sql
index cdf85d74434f9a7346cf1f23ae8ceecb46d7a13c..3f6f04ace7cd807be8b6dd4ae087470479ea802a 100644
--- a/install/sql/ispconfig3.sql
+++ b/install/sql/ispconfig3.sql
@@ -2046,8 +2046,8 @@ CREATE TABLE `web_domain` (
   `stats_password` varchar(255) default NULL,
   `stats_type` varchar(255) default 'awstats',
   `allow_override` varchar(255) NOT NULL default 'All',
-  `apache_directives` mediumtext,
-  `nginx_directives` mediumtext,
+  `apache_directives` mediumtext NULL DEFAULT NULL,
+  `nginx_directives` mediumtext NULL DEFAULT NULL,
   `php_fpm_use_socket` ENUM('n','y') NOT NULL DEFAULT 'y',
   `php_fpm_chroot` enum('n','y') NOT NULL DEFAULT 'n',
   `pm` enum('static','dynamic','ondemand') NOT NULL DEFAULT 'ondemand',
diff --git a/server/plugins-available/apache2_plugin.inc.php b/server/plugins-available/apache2_plugin.inc.php
index cf58ed8a2013fd25d1dbefe0948d96eb55d5da3a..aab398637609cdee52265106a344439154fc63d6 100644
--- a/server/plugins-available/apache2_plugin.inc.php
+++ b/server/plugins-available/apache2_plugin.inc.php
@@ -1186,6 +1186,11 @@ class apache2_plugin {
 				$vhost_data['apache_directives'] = $snippet['snippet'];
 			}
 		}
+
+		if(!$vhost_data['apache_directives']) {
+			$vhost_data['apache_directives'] = ''; // ensure it is not null
+		}
+
 		// Make sure we only have Unix linebreaks
 		$vhost_data['apache_directives'] = str_replace("\r\n", "\n", $vhost_data['apache_directives']);
 		$vhost_data['apache_directives'] = str_replace("\r", "\n", $vhost_data['apache_directives']);
diff --git a/server/plugins-available/nginx_plugin.inc.php b/server/plugins-available/nginx_plugin.inc.php
index f7f93b4be51eb3d59d528af62681fac66a353b6f..dd9316c926000f24c630931dab1d8dcf204c192f 100644
--- a/server/plugins-available/nginx_plugin.inc.php
+++ b/server/plugins-available/nginx_plugin.inc.php
@@ -1200,6 +1200,9 @@ class nginx_plugin {
 			$nginx_directives = $data['new']['nginx_directives'];
 //			$vhost_data['enable_pagespeed'] = false;
 		}
+		if(!$nginx_directives) {
+			$nginx_directives = ''; // ensure it is not null
+		}
 
 		// folder_directive_snippets
 		if(trim($data['new']['folder_directive_snippets']) != ''){
diff --git a/server/plugins-available/nginx_reverseproxy_plugin.inc.php b/server/plugins-available/nginx_reverseproxy_plugin.inc.php
index 1013042254ba2a2c63980394e6dc964021beb1f8..f35f40d34a2fd638de9532da7b7e30717c0c6e6b 100644
--- a/server/plugins-available/nginx_reverseproxy_plugin.inc.php
+++ b/server/plugins-available/nginx_reverseproxy_plugin.inc.php
@@ -111,7 +111,9 @@ class nginx_reverseproxy_plugin {
 		$crt_file = $ssl_dir.'/'.$domain.'.crt';
 		$bundle_file = $ssl_dir.'/'.$domain.'.bundle';
 
-		$vhost_data['nginx_directives'] = preg_replace("/\[IP\]/", $vhost_data['ip_address'], $vhost_data['nginx_directives']);
+		if($vhost_data['nginx_directives']) {
+			$vhost_data['nginx_directives'] = preg_replace("/\[IP\]/", $vhost_data['ip_address'], $vhost_data['nginx_directives']);
+		}
 
 
 		if($data['new']['ssl'] == 'y' && @is_file($crt_file) && @is_file($key_file)) {