diff --git a/maintenance/updateCollation.php b/maintenance/updateCollation.php
index a76a1ee69aa..8118f682f15 100644
--- a/maintenance/updateCollation.php
+++ b/maintenance/updateCollation.php
@@ -82,6 +82,10 @@ TEXT;
 			$collation = Collation::singleton();
 		}
 
+		// Collation sanity check: in some cases the constructor will work,
+		// but this will raise an exception, breaking all category pages
+		$collation->getFirstLetterData();
+
 		$options = array(
 			'LIMIT' => self::BATCH_SIZE,
 			'ORDER BY' => 'cl_to, cl_type, cl_from',