diff --git a/src/common/ffile.cpp b/src/common/ffile.cpp
index a302d16373..1f729c2cc2 100644
--- a/src/common/ffile.cpp
+++ b/src/common/ffile.cpp
@@ -155,17 +155,28 @@ size_t wxFFile::Write(const void *pBuf, size_t nCount)
 
 bool wxFFile::Write(const wxString& s, const wxMBConv& conv)
 {
-  const wxWX2MBbuf buf = s.mb_str(conv);
-  if ( !buf )
-      return false;
+    // Writing nothing always succeeds -- and simplifies the check for
+    // conversion failure below.
+    if ( s.empty() )
+        return true;
+
+    const wxWX2MBbuf buf = s.mb_str(conv);
 
 #if wxUSE_UNICODE
-  const size_t size = buf.length();
+    const size_t size = buf.length();
+
+    if ( !size )
+    {
+        // This means that the conversion failed as the original string wasn't
+        // empty (we explicitly checked for this above) and in this case we
+        // must fail too to indicate that we can't save the data.
+        return false;
+    }
 #else
-  const size_t size = s.length();
+    const size_t size = s.length();
 #endif
 
-  return Write(buf, size) == size;
+    return Write(buf, size) == size;
 }
 
 bool wxFFile::Flush()
diff --git a/src/common/file.cpp b/src/common/file.cpp
index e363493554..018816f80a 100644
--- a/src/common/file.cpp
+++ b/src/common/file.cpp
@@ -351,17 +351,28 @@ size_t wxFile::Write(const void *pBuf, size_t nCount)
 
 bool wxFile::Write(const wxString& s, const wxMBConv& conv)
 {
-  const wxWX2MBbuf buf = s.mb_str(conv);
-  if ( !buf )
-      return false;
+    // Writing nothing always succeeds -- and simplifies the check for
+    // conversion failure below.
+    if ( s.empty() )
+        return true;
+
+    const wxWX2MBbuf buf = s.mb_str(conv);
 
 #if wxUSE_UNICODE
-  const size_t size = buf.length();
+    const size_t size = buf.length();
+
+    if ( !size )
+    {
+        // This means that the conversion failed as the original string wasn't
+        // empty (we explicitly checked for this above) and in this case we
+        // must fail too to indicate that we can't save the data.
+        return false;
+    }
 #else
-  const size_t size = s.length();
+    const size_t size = s.length();
 #endif
 
-  return Write(buf, size) == size;
+    return Write(buf, size) == size;
 }
 
 // flush