diff --git a/osu.Game/Storyboards/Storyboard.cs b/osu.Game/Storyboards/Storyboard.cs
index 99123627bd..9e3d3df915 100644
--- a/osu.Game/Storyboards/Storyboard.cs
+++ b/osu.Game/Storyboards/Storyboard.cs
@@ -77,10 +77,14 @@ namespace osu.Game.Storyboards
         {
             get
             {
-                string backgroundPath = BeatmapInfo.BeatmapSet?.Metadata?.BackgroundFile.ToLowerInvariant();
+                string backgroundPath = BeatmapInfo.BeatmapSet?.Metadata?.BackgroundFile;
+
                 if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(backgroundPath))
                     return false;
 
+                // Importantly, do this after the NullOrEmpty because EF may have stored the non-nullable value as null to the database, bypassing compile-time constraints.
+                backgroundPath = backgroundPath.ToLowerInvariant();
+
                 return GetLayer("Background").Elements.Any(e => e.Path.ToLowerInvariant() == backgroundPath);
             }
         }
@@ -93,7 +97,7 @@ namespace osu.Game.Storyboards
             Drawable drawable = null;
             string storyboardPath = BeatmapInfo.BeatmapSet?.Files.Find(f => f.Filename.Equals(path, StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase))?.FileInfo.StoragePath;
 
-            if (storyboardPath != null)
+            if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(storyboardPath))
                 drawable = new Sprite { Texture = textureStore.Get(storyboardPath) };
             // if the texture isn't available locally in the beatmap, some storyboards choose to source from the underlying skin lookup hierarchy.
             else if (UseSkinSprites)