diff --git a/src/calibre/gui2/library/alternate_views.py b/src/calibre/gui2/library/alternate_views.py
index 6bbb19ddaf..cd0fee3c3a 100644
--- a/src/calibre/gui2/library/alternate_views.py
+++ b/src/calibre/gui2/library/alternate_views.py
@@ -972,6 +972,7 @@ class GridView(QListView):
                 cache_valid = None
         else:
             # A cover is in the cache. Check whether it is up to date.
+            # Note that if tcdata is not None then it is already a PIL image.
             has_cover, tcdata, timestamp = db.new_api.cover_or_cache(book_id, timestamp,
                                                                      as_what='pil_image')
             if has_cover:
@@ -1012,12 +1013,6 @@ class GridView(QListView):
         if cover_tuple.has_cover:
             # cdata contains either the resized thumbnail, the full cover.jpg
             # rendered as a PIL image, or None if cover.jpg isn't valid
-            if cdata.getbbox() is None and cover_tuple.cache_valid:
-                # Something wrong with the cover data in the cache. Remove it
-                # from the cache and queue it to render again.
-                tc.invalidate((book_id,))
-                self.render_queue.put(book_id)
-                return None
             if not cover_tuple.cache_valid:
                 # The cover isn't in the cache, is stale, or isn't a valid
                 # image. We might have the image from cover.jpg, in which case
@@ -1052,6 +1047,20 @@ class GridView(QListView):
                     # The cover data isn't valid. Remove it from the cache
                     tc.invalidate((book_id,))
             else:
+                # Test to see if there is something wrong with the cover data in
+                # the cache. If so, remove it from the cache and queue it to
+                # render again. It isn't clear that this can ever happen. One
+                # possibility is if different versions of calibre are used
+                # interchangeably.
+                def getbbox(img):
+                    try:
+                        return img.getbbox()
+                    except Exception:
+                        return None
+                if getbbox(cdata) is None:
+                    tc.invalidate((book_id,))
+                    self.render_queue.put(book_id)
+                    return None
                 # The data from the cover cache is valid and is already a thumb.
                 thumb = cdata
         else: