diff --git a/odoo/addons/base/ir/ir_mail_server.py b/odoo/addons/base/ir/ir_mail_server.py
index 454e2dc0780..4314b9b6015 100644
--- a/odoo/addons/base/ir/ir_mail_server.py
+++ b/odoo/addons/base/ir/ir_mail_server.py
@@ -119,10 +119,18 @@ def encode_rfc2822_address_header(header_text):
         # Header as a string, using an unlimited line length.", the old one
         # was "A synonym for Header.encode()." so call encode() directly?
         name = Header(pycompat.to_text(name)).encode()
-        return formataddr((name, email))
+        # if the from does not follow the (name <addr>),* convention, we might
+        # try to encode meaningless strings as address, as getaddresses is naive
+        # note it would also fail on real addresses with non-ascii characters
+        try:
+            return formataddr((name, email))
+        except UnicodeEncodeError:
+            _logger.warning(_('Failed to encode the address %s\n'
+                              'from mail header:\n%s') % addr, header_text)
+            return ""
 
     addresses = getaddresses([pycompat.to_native(ustr(header_text))])
-    return COMMASPACE.join(encode_addr(a) for a in addresses)
+    return COMMASPACE.join(a for a in (encode_addr(addr) for addr in addresses) if a)
 
 
 class IrMailServer(models.Model):