diff --git a/src/MusicChunk.cxx b/src/MusicChunk.cxx
index 0caeec46f..3cfd232c0 100644
--- a/src/MusicChunk.cxx
+++ b/src/MusicChunk.cxx
@@ -60,9 +60,6 @@ MusicChunk::Write(const AudioFormat af,
 
 	const size_t frame_size = af.GetFrameSize();
 	size_t num_frames = (sizeof(data) - length) / frame_size;
-	if (num_frames == 0)
-		return WritableBuffer<void>::Null();
-
 	return { data + length, num_frames * frame_size };
 }
 
diff --git a/src/decoder/DecoderAPI.cxx b/src/decoder/DecoderAPI.cxx
index 3d45cb325..4d0b2fd48 100644
--- a/src/decoder/DecoderAPI.cxx
+++ b/src/decoder/DecoderAPI.cxx
@@ -513,15 +513,13 @@ decoder_data(Decoder &decoder,
 				     SongTime::FromS(decoder.timestamp) -
 				     dc.song->GetStartTime(),
 				     kbit_rate);
-		if (dest.IsNull()) {
+		if (dest.IsEmpty()) {
 			/* the chunk is full, flush it */
 			decoder.FlushChunk();
 			continue;
 		}
 
 		size_t nbytes = dest.size;
-		assert(nbytes > 0);
-
 		if (nbytes > length)
 			nbytes = length;