diff --git a/bob/bio/base/annotator/FailSafe.py b/bob/bio/base/annotator/FailSafe.py
index 4ba32ad673d088a7d8bdfffc9a2447dc835d488a..88af4ddce4b4e37bceaea5051601d10bae4315bb 100644
--- a/bob/bio/base/annotator/FailSafe.py
+++ b/bob/bio/base/annotator/FailSafe.py
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ class FailSafe(Annotator):
             if not annotations:
                 logger.debug(
                     "Annotator `%s' returned empty annotations.", annotator)
-            kwargs['annotations'].update(annotations)
+            kwargs['annotations'].update(annotations or {})
             # check if we have all the required annotations
             if all(key in kwargs['annotations'] for key in self.required_keys):
                 break