diff --git a/app/recents/image/route.tsx b/app/recents/image/route.tsx
index c9f9eb28..1a15e8b7 100644
--- a/app/recents/image/route.tsx
+++ b/app/recents/image/route.tsx
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ export async function GET() {
       ? getPhotosCached({
         limit: MAX_PHOTOS_TO_SHOW_PER_CATEGORY,
         recent: true,
-      })
+      }).catch(() => [])
       : [],
     getIBMPlexMono(),
     getImageResponseCacheControlHeaders(),
diff --git a/app/recents/page.tsx b/app/recents/page.tsx
index ef169046..d60c581e 100644
--- a/app/recents/page.tsx
+++ b/app/recents/page.tsx
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-import { INFINITE_SCROLL_GRID_INITIAL } from '@/photo';
+import { INFINITE_SCROLL_GRID_INITIAL, Photo } from '@/photo';
 import { generateMetaForRecents } from '@/recents/meta';
 import RecentsOverview from '@/recents/RecentsOverview';
 import { getPhotosRecentsDataCached } from '@/recents/data';
@@ -9,7 +9,9 @@ import { redirect } from 'next/navigation';
 import { getAppText } from '@/i18n/state/server';
 
 const getPhotosRecentsDataCachedCached = cache(() =>
-  getPhotosRecentsDataCached({ limit: INFINITE_SCROLL_GRID_INITIAL }));
+  getPhotosRecentsDataCached({ limit: INFINITE_SCROLL_GRID_INITIAL })
+    .catch(() => [[] as Photo[], { count: 0, dateRange: undefined}] as const),
+);
 
 export async function generateMetadata(): Promise<Metadata> {
   const [
diff --git a/src/platforms/postgres.ts b/src/platforms/postgres.ts
index 056b3400..27c2c85a 100644
--- a/src/platforms/postgres.ts
+++ b/src/platforms/postgres.ts
@@ -3,7 +3,12 @@ import { removeParamsFromUrl } from '@/utility/url';
 import { Pool, QueryResult, QueryResultRow } from 'pg';
 
 const pool = new Pool({
-  connectionString: removeParamsFromUrl(process.env.POSTGRES_URL, ['sslmode']),
+  ...process.env.POSTGRES_URL && {
+    connectionString: removeParamsFromUrl(
+      process.env.POSTGRES_URL,
+      ['sslmode'],
+    ),
+  },
   ...POSTGRES_SSL_ENABLED && { ssl: true },
 });
 
diff --git a/src/utility/url.ts b/src/utility/url.ts
index 0f83e113..63c927ce 100644
--- a/src/utility/url.ts
+++ b/src/utility/url.ts
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ export const makeUrlAbsolute = (url?: string) => url !== undefined
     .replace(/\/$/, '')
   : undefined;
 
-export const removeParamsFromUrl = (urlString = '', params: string[]) => {
+export const removeParamsFromUrl = (urlString: string, params: string[]) => {
   const url = new URL(urlString);
   for (const param of params) {
     url.searchParams.delete(param);