diff --git a/CHANGES.rst b/CHANGES.rst
index 0056c4b7a..d35a79ce0 100644
--- a/CHANGES.rst
+++ b/CHANGES.rst
@@ -6,6 +6,9 @@ There's a frood who really knows where his towel is.
 1.0a11 (unreleased)
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 
+- Allow new empty carousel tiles to be edited in compose mode. (fixes `#472`_).
+  [fredvd]
+
 - Add warning in the developer docs that switching the default grid system also means you should pay extra attention to the preset/saved cover layouts as these can contain invalid grid sizes.
   [fredvd]
 
diff --git a/src/collective/cover/tests/test_carousel_tile.robot b/src/collective/cover/tests/test_carousel_tile.robot
index 0965c5ba5..4a6348fad 100644
--- a/src/collective/cover/tests/test_carousel_tile.robot
+++ b/src/collective/cover/tests/test_carousel_tile.robot
@@ -43,6 +43,11 @@ Test Carousel Tile
     Compose Cover
     Page Should Contain  This carousel is empty; open the content chooser and drag-and-drop some items here.
 
+    # Test if we can edit the cover without any content added to it yet
+    Click Link  css=${edit_link_selector}
+    Page Should Contain  Edit Carousel Tile
+    Click Button  Cancel
+
     # drag&drop an Image
     Open Content Chooser
     Click Element  link=Content tree
diff --git a/src/collective/cover/tiles/carousel.py b/src/collective/cover/tiles/carousel.py
index 6bf4ea455..4f08108fb 100644
--- a/src/collective/cover/tiles/carousel.py
+++ b/src/collective/cover/tiles/carousel.py
@@ -173,6 +173,12 @@ def toWidgetValue(self, value):
         :type value: Dict
         :returns: A string with UUIDs separated by \r\n
         """
+
+        # A new carousel tile has no items, populate_with_uids has not been
+        # called yet, so incoming uuids is not an empty dict() but None
+        if value is None:
+            return ''
+
         ordered_uuids = [(k, v) for k, v in value.items()]
         ordered_uuids.sort(key=lambda x: x[1]['order'])
         return '\r\n'.join([i[0] for i in ordered_uuids])