diff --git a/modules/ve-mw/dm/nodes/ve.dm.MWGalleryImageNode.js b/modules/ve-mw/dm/nodes/ve.dm.MWGalleryImageNode.js
index 60dcedab20..1406c37e13 100644
--- a/modules/ve-mw/dm/nodes/ve.dm.MWGalleryImageNode.js
+++ b/modules/ve-mw/dm/nodes/ve.dm.MWGalleryImageNode.js
@@ -230,10 +230,11 @@ ve.dm.MWGalleryImageNode.static.toDomElements = function ( data, doc, converter
 	while ( captionWrapper.firstChild ) {
 		li.appendChild( captionWrapper.firstChild );
 	}
+	var captionText = ve.dm.MWGalleryImageNode.static.textContentFromCaption( li ).trim();
 
 	if ( img.nodeName.toLowerCase() === 'img' ) {
-		if ( attributes.altTextSame ) {
-			img.setAttribute( 'alt', ve.dm.MWGalleryImageNode.static.textContentFromCaption( li ).trim() );
+		if ( attributes.altTextSame && captionText ) {
+			img.setAttribute( 'alt', captionText );
 		} else if ( typeof alt === 'string' ) {
 			img.setAttribute( 'alt', alt );
 		}
diff --git a/modules/ve-mw/ui/dialogs/ve.ui.MWGalleryDialog.js b/modules/ve-mw/ui/dialogs/ve.ui.MWGalleryDialog.js
index 007fe62eae..4418213c23 100644
--- a/modules/ve-mw/ui/dialogs/ve.ui.MWGalleryDialog.js
+++ b/modules/ve-mw/ui/dialogs/ve.ui.MWGalleryDialog.js
@@ -671,7 +671,11 @@ ve.ui.MWGalleryDialog.prototype.onRequestImagesSuccess = function ( response ) {
 					resource: title,
 					altText: null,
 					altTextSame: true,
-					href: null,
+					// TODO: support changing the link in the UI somewhere;
+					// for now, always link to the resource. Do it here when
+					// generating new results, so existing links from source
+					// will be preserved.
+					href: title,
 					src: '',
 					height: thumbUrls[ title ].height,
 					width: thumbUrls[ title ].width,