diff --git a/SessionMessagingKit/Messages/Message.swift b/SessionMessagingKit/Messages/Message.swift
index a8267acae..9dec50347 100644
--- a/SessionMessagingKit/Messages/Message.swift
+++ b/SessionMessagingKit/Messages/Message.swift
@@ -356,13 +356,14 @@ public extension Message {
         dependencies: SMKDependencies = SMKDependencies()
     ) -> [Reaction] {
         var results: [Reaction] = []
+        guard let reactions = message.reactions else { return results }
         let userPublicKey: String = getUserHexEncodedPublicKey(db)
         let blindedUserPublicKey: String? = SessionThread
             .getUserHexEncodedBlindedKey(
                 threadId: openGroupId,
                 threadVariant: .openGroup
             )
-        for (encodedEmoji, rawReaction) in message.reactions {
+        for (encodedEmoji, rawReaction) in reactions {
             if let emoji = encodedEmoji.removingPercentEncoding,
                rawReaction.count > 0,
                let reactors = rawReaction.reactors
diff --git a/SessionMessagingKit/Open Groups/Models/SOGSMessage.swift b/SessionMessagingKit/Open Groups/Models/SOGSMessage.swift
index c30dfcf3a..8ce774b31 100644
--- a/SessionMessagingKit/Open Groups/Models/SOGSMessage.swift	
+++ b/SessionMessagingKit/Open Groups/Models/SOGSMessage.swift	
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ extension OpenGroupAPI {
             public let index: Int64
         }
         
-        public let reactions: [String:Reaction]
+        public let reactions: [String:Reaction]?
     }
 }
 
@@ -107,7 +107,7 @@ extension OpenGroupAPI.Message {
             whisperTo: try? container.decode(String.self, forKey: .whisperTo),
             base64EncodedData: maybeBase64EncodedData,
             base64EncodedSignature: maybeBase64EncodedSignature,
-            reactions: maybeReactions ?? [:]
+            reactions: !container.contains(.reactions) ? nil : (maybeReactions ?? [:])
         )
     }
 }
diff --git a/SessionMessagingKit/Open Groups/OpenGroupManager.swift b/SessionMessagingKit/Open Groups/OpenGroupManager.swift
index 7bee7652e..a54f51ec0 100644
--- a/SessionMessagingKit/Open Groups/OpenGroupManager.swift	
+++ b/SessionMessagingKit/Open Groups/OpenGroupManager.swift	
@@ -515,6 +515,11 @@ public final class OpenGroupManager: NSObject {
         
         // Process the messages
         sortedMessages.forEach { message in
+            if message.base64EncodedData == nil && message.reactions == nil {
+                messageServerIdsToRemove.append(Int64(message.id))
+                return
+            }
+            
             // Handle messages
             if let base64EncodedString: String = message.base64EncodedData,
                let data = Data(base64Encoded: base64EncodedString)
@@ -556,22 +561,24 @@ public final class OpenGroupManager: NSObject {
             }
             
             // Handle reactions
-            do {
-                let reactions: [Reaction] = Message.processRawReceivedReactions(
-                    db,
-                    openGroupId: openGroup.id,
-                    message: message,
-                    dependencies: dependencies
-                )
-                
-                try MessageReceiver.handleOpenGroupReactions(
-                    db,
-                    openGroupMessageServerId: message.id,
-                    openGroupReactions: reactions
-                )
-            }
-            catch {
-                SNLog("Couldn't handle open group reactions due to error: \(error).")
+            if message.reactions != nil {
+                do {
+                    let reactions: [Reaction] = Message.processRawReceivedReactions(
+                        db,
+                        openGroupId: openGroup.id,
+                        message: message,
+                        dependencies: dependencies
+                    )
+                    
+                    try MessageReceiver.handleOpenGroupReactions(
+                        db,
+                        openGroupMessageServerId: message.id,
+                        openGroupReactions: reactions
+                    )
+                }
+                catch {
+                    SNLog("Couldn't handle open group reactions due to error: \(error).")
+                }
             }
         }