diff --git a/letsencrypt-auto-source/letsencrypt-auto b/letsencrypt-auto-source/letsencrypt-auto
index 464781a49..7210f6a3d 100755
--- a/letsencrypt-auto-source/letsencrypt-auto
+++ b/letsencrypt-auto-source/letsencrypt-auto
@@ -609,6 +609,11 @@ if [ "$1" = "--le-auto-phase2" ]; then
     # --version output ran through grep due to python-cryptography DeprecationWarnings
     # grep for both certbot and letsencrypt until certbot and shim packages have been released
     INSTALLED_VERSION=$("$VENV_BIN/letsencrypt" --version 2>&1 | grep "^certbot\|^letsencrypt" | cut -d " " -f 2)
+    if [ -z "$INSTALLED_VERSION" ]; then
+        echo "Error: couldn't get currently installed version for $VENV_BIN/letsencrypt: " 1>&2
+        "$VENV_BIN/letsencrypt" --version
+        exit 1
+    fi
   else
     INSTALLED_VERSION="none"
   fi
diff --git a/letsencrypt-auto-source/letsencrypt-auto.template b/letsencrypt-auto-source/letsencrypt-auto.template
index b602540a0..a3ab7eaa1 100755
--- a/letsencrypt-auto-source/letsencrypt-auto.template
+++ b/letsencrypt-auto-source/letsencrypt-auto.template
@@ -260,6 +260,11 @@ if [ "$1" = "--le-auto-phase2" ]; then
     # --version output ran through grep due to python-cryptography DeprecationWarnings
     # grep for both certbot and letsencrypt until certbot and shim packages have been released
     INSTALLED_VERSION=$("$VENV_BIN/letsencrypt" --version 2>&1 | grep "^certbot\|^letsencrypt" | cut -d " " -f 2)
+    if [ -z "$INSTALLED_VERSION" ]; then
+        echo "Error: couldn't get currently installed version for $VENV_BIN/letsencrypt: " 1>&2
+        "$VENV_BIN/letsencrypt" --version
+        exit 1
+    fi
   else
     INSTALLED_VERSION="none"
   fi