diff --git a/deltachat-ffi/src/lib.rs b/deltachat-ffi/src/lib.rs
index b2ddbced0..fdc1a198d 100644
--- a/deltachat-ffi/src/lib.rs
+++ b/deltachat-ffi/src/lib.rs
@@ -925,6 +925,8 @@ pub unsafe extern "C" fn dc_get_fresh_msgs(
         let arr = dc_array_t::from(
             ctx.get_fresh_msgs()
                 .await
+                .log_err(ctx, "Failed to get fresh messages")
+                .unwrap_or_default()
                 .iter()
                 .map(|msg_id| msg_id.to_u32())
                 .collect::<Vec<u32>>(),
diff --git a/examples/repl/cmdline.rs b/examples/repl/cmdline.rs
index b3fcb2b93..2005defe6 100644
--- a/examples/repl/cmdline.rs
+++ b/examples/repl/cmdline.rs
@@ -1000,7 +1000,7 @@ pub async fn cmdline(context: Context, line: &str, chat_id: &mut ChatId) -> Resu
             println!("HTML written to: {:#?}", file);
         }
         "listfresh" => {
-            let msglist = context.get_fresh_msgs().await;
+            let msglist = context.get_fresh_msgs().await?;
 
             log_msglist(&context, &msglist).await?;
             print!("{} fresh messages.", msglist.len());
diff --git a/src/context.rs b/src/context.rs
index f6dec7c9c..d428048d2 100644
--- a/src/context.rs
+++ b/src/context.rs
@@ -431,8 +431,9 @@ impl Context {
     /// and is typically used to show notifications.
     /// Moreover, the number of returned messages
     /// can be used for a badge counter on the app icon.
-    pub async fn get_fresh_msgs(&self) -> Vec<MsgId> {
-        self.sql
+    pub async fn get_fresh_msgs(&self) -> Result<Vec<MsgId>> {
+        let ret = self
+            .sql
             .query_map(
                 concat!(
                     "SELECT m.id",
@@ -459,8 +460,8 @@ impl Context {
                     Ok(ret)
                 },
             )
-            .await
-            .unwrap_or_default()
+            .await?;
+        Ok(ret)
     }
 
     /// Searches for messages containing the query string.
@@ -610,7 +611,7 @@ mod tests {
     #[async_std::test]
     async fn test_get_fresh_msgs() {
         let t = TestContext::new().await;
-        let fresh = t.get_fresh_msgs().await;
+        let fresh = t.get_fresh_msgs().await.unwrap();
         assert!(fresh.is_empty())
     }