diff --git a/src/Umbraco.Core/Configuration/GlobalSettings.cs b/src/Umbraco.Core/Configuration/GlobalSettings.cs
index 4526ece5f3..d3c1fcb2ae 100644
--- a/src/Umbraco.Core/Configuration/GlobalSettings.cs
+++ b/src/Umbraco.Core/Configuration/GlobalSettings.cs
@@ -704,8 +704,12 @@ namespace Umbraco.Core.Configuration
                         StartsWithContainer _newReservedList = new StartsWithContainer();
                         foreach (string reservedUrl in _reservedUrlsCache.Split(new[] { "," }, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries))
                         {
+                            if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(reservedUrl))
+                               continue;
+                            
+
                             //resolves the url to support tilde chars
-                            string reservedUrlTrimmed = IOHelper.ResolveUrl(reservedUrl).Trim().ToLower();
+                            string reservedUrlTrimmed = IOHelper.ResolveUrl(reservedUrl.Trim()).Trim().ToLower();
                             if (reservedUrlTrimmed.Length > 0)
                                 _newReservedList.Add(reservedUrlTrimmed);
                         }
@@ -713,8 +717,11 @@ namespace Umbraco.Core.Configuration
                         foreach (string reservedPath in _reservedPathsCache.Split(new[] { "," }, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries))
                         {
                             bool trimEnd = !reservedPath.EndsWith("/");
+                            if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(reservedPath))
+                                continue;
+                           
                             //resolves the url to support tilde chars
-                            string reservedPathTrimmed = IOHelper.ResolveUrl(reservedPath).Trim().ToLower();
+                            string reservedPathTrimmed = IOHelper.ResolveUrl(reservedPath.Trim()).Trim().ToLower();
 
                             if (reservedPathTrimmed.Length > 0)
                                 _newReservedList.Add(reservedPathTrimmed + (reservedPathTrimmed.EndsWith("/") ? "" : "/"));
diff --git a/src/Umbraco.Core/IO/IOHelper.cs b/src/Umbraco.Core/IO/IOHelper.cs
index 22dc0814d5..9f917f18a7 100644
--- a/src/Umbraco.Core/IO/IOHelper.cs
+++ b/src/Umbraco.Core/IO/IOHelper.cs
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ namespace Umbraco.Core.IO
         //Replaces tildes with the root dir
         public static string ResolveUrl(string virtualPath)
         {
-            if (virtualPath.StartsWith("~"))
+             if (virtualPath.StartsWith("~"))
                 return virtualPath.Replace("~", SystemDirectories.Root).Replace("//", "/");
             else if (Uri.IsWellFormedUriString(virtualPath, UriKind.Absolute))
                 return virtualPath;