diff --git a/src/categories/index.js b/src/categories/index.js
index f7a7a7e8b0..35fd8f740f 100644
--- a/src/categories/index.js
+++ b/src/categories/index.js
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ Categories.getCategoryById = function (data, callback) {
 		},
 		function (categories, next) {
 			if (!categories[0]) {
-				return next(new Error('[[error:invalid-cid]]'));
+				return callback(null, null);
 			}
 			category = categories[0];
 			data.category = category;
diff --git a/src/controllers/category.js b/src/controllers/category.js
index bc59b9d8a3..5490b5c2ea 100644
--- a/src/controllers/category.js
+++ b/src/controllers/category.js
@@ -103,6 +103,9 @@ categoryController.get = function (req, res, callback) {
 			}, next);
 		},
 		function (categoryData, next) {
+			if (!categoryData) {
+				return callback();
+			}
 			categories.modifyTopicsByPrivilege(categoryData.topics, userPrivileges);
 
 			if (categoryData.link) {
diff --git a/src/routes/feeds.js b/src/routes/feeds.js
index 8917b623dd..569db57266 100644
--- a/src/routes/feeds.js
+++ b/src/routes/feeds.js
@@ -148,14 +148,14 @@ function generateForTopic(req, res, callback) {
 	], callback);
 }
 
-function generateForCategory(req, res, next) {
+function generateForCategory(req, res, callback) {
 	if (meta.config['feeds:disableRSS']) {
 		return controllers404.send404(req, res);
 	}
 	var cid = req.params.category_id;
 	var category;
 	if (!parseInt(cid, 10)) {
-		return next();
+		return setImmediate(callback);
 	}
 	async.waterfall([
 		function (next) {
@@ -177,6 +177,9 @@ function generateForCategory(req, res, next) {
 		},
 		function (results, next) {
 			category = results.category;
+			if (!category) {
+				return callback();
+			}
 			validateTokenIfRequiresLogin(!results.privileges.read, cid, req, res, next);
 		},
 		function (next) {
@@ -191,7 +194,7 @@ function generateForCategory(req, res, next) {
 		function (feed) {
 			sendFeed(feed, res);
 		},
-	], next);
+	], callback);
 }
 
 function generateForTopics(req, res, next) {
diff --git a/test/categories.js b/test/categories.js
index 8de352055b..af11a3528b 100644
--- a/test/categories.js
+++ b/test/categories.js
@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ describe('Categories', function () {
 			stop: -1,
 			uid: 0,
 		}, function (err, categoryData) {
-			assert.equal(err, null);
+			assert.ifError(err);
 
 			assert(categoryData);
 			assert.equal('Test Category & NodeBB', categoryData.name);
@@ -67,6 +67,17 @@ describe('Categories', function () {
 		});
 	});
 
+	it('should return null if category does not exist', function (done) {
+		Categories.getCategoryById({
+			cid: 123123123,
+			start: 0,
+			stop: -1,
+		}, function (err, categoryData) {
+			assert.ifError(err);
+			assert.strictEqual(categoryData, null);
+			done();
+		});
+	});
 
 	it('should load a category route', function (done) {
 		request(nconf.get('url') + '/api/category/' + categoryObj.cid + '/test-category', { json: true }, function (err, response, body) {