diff --git a/app/src/processing/app/Base.java b/app/src/processing/app/Base.java
index 34193e07d..1e4819bba 100644
--- a/app/src/processing/app/Base.java
+++ b/app/src/processing/app/Base.java
@@ -1706,7 +1706,7 @@ public class Base {
     TargetPlatform corePlatform = null;
 
     String core = board.getPreferences().get("build.core");
-    if (core.contains(":")) {
+    if (core != null && core.contains(":")) {
       String[] split = core.split(":", 2);
       corePlatform = BaseNoGui.getCurrentTargetPlatformFromPackage(split[0]);
     }