diff --git a/src/frontends/qt4/TocWidget.cpp b/src/frontends/qt4/TocWidget.cpp
index 80c9db97d9..bfdc9f06ca 100644
--- a/src/frontends/qt4/TocWidget.cpp
+++ b/src/frontends/qt4/TocWidget.cpp
@@ -152,7 +152,7 @@ bool TocWidget::getStatus(Cursor & cur, FuncRequest const & cmd,
 	case LFUN_OUTLINE_IN:
 	case LFUN_OUTLINE_OUT:
 	case LFUN_SECTION_SELECT:
-		status.setEnabled(true);
+		status.setEnabled(item.dit() != 0);
 		return true;
 
 	case LFUN_LABEL_COPY_AS_REF: {
diff --git a/status.20x b/status.20x
index c15980ca14..efb796e831 100644
--- a/status.20x
+++ b/status.20x
@@ -87,6 +87,9 @@ What's new
 
 - Fix crash when changing alignment of several cells in tabular (bug 8859).
 
+- Disable invalid actions in empty outliner that could trigger a crash
+  (bug 8885).
+
 - Fix bug where searching for next change may leave an empty paragraph
   where cursor was (bug 3199).