diff --git a/src/app/mainview/components/MessageBarTextArea.qml b/src/app/mainview/components/MessageBarTextArea.qml
index 001ceea7..3b1637c8 100644
--- a/src/app/mainview/components/MessageBarTextArea.qml
+++ b/src/app/mainview/components/MessageBarTextArea.qml
@@ -113,9 +113,7 @@ JamiFlickable {
         }
     }
 
-    readonly property bool spellCheckEnabled:
-        AppSettingsManager.getValue(Settings.EnableSpellCheck) &&
-        AppSettingsManager.getValue(Settings.SpellLang) !== ""
+    property bool spellCheckEnabled: AppSettingsManager.getValue(Settings.EnableSpellCheck) && AppSettingsManager.getValue(Settings.SpellLang) !== ""
 
     // Spell check is active under the following conditions:
     // 1. Spell check is enabled in settings
@@ -192,7 +190,7 @@ JamiFlickable {
 
         onReleased: function (event) {
             if (event.button === Qt.RightButton) {
-                if (spellCheckActive) {
+                if (spellCheckActive && SpellCheckAdapter.hasLoadedDictionary) {
                     var position = textArea.positionAt(event.x, event.y);
                     textArea.moveCursorSelection(position, TextInput.SelectWords);
                     textArea.selectWord();
@@ -254,7 +252,7 @@ JamiFlickable {
         function updateSpellCorrection() {
             clearUnderlines();
             // We iterate over the whole text to find words to check and underline them if needed
-            if (spellCheckActive) {
+            if (spellCheckActive && SpellCheckAdapter.hasLoadedDictionary) {
                 var text = textArea.text;
                 var words = SpellCheckAdapter.findWords(text);
                 if (!words)
diff --git a/src/app/spellcheckadapter.cpp b/src/app/spellcheckadapter.cpp
index f1f875c4..2e0a276f 100644
--- a/src/app/spellcheckadapter.cpp
+++ b/src/app/spellcheckadapter.cpp
@@ -134,6 +134,9 @@ SpellCheckAdapter::setDictionary(const QString& locale)
     auto localPath = dictionaryListModel_->pathForLocale(locale);
     if (spellChecker_.replaceDictionary(localPath)) {
         settingsManager_->setValue(Settings::Key::SpellLang, locale);
+        set_hasLoadedDictionary(true);
         Q_EMIT dictionaryChanged();
+    } else {
+        qWarning() << "Failed to set dictionary for locale:" << locale;
     }
 }
diff --git a/src/app/spellcheckadapter.h b/src/app/spellcheckadapter.h
index cfc21aaa..e93551ce 100644
--- a/src/app/spellcheckadapter.h
+++ b/src/app/spellcheckadapter.h
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@ class SpellCheckAdapter final : public QObject
     QML_SINGLETON
 
     QML_RO_PROPERTY(int, installedDictionaryCount)
+    QML_RO_PROPERTY(bool, hasLoadedDictionary)
 
 public:
     static SpellCheckAdapter* create(QQmlEngine* engine, QJSEngine*)
diff --git a/src/app/spellchecker.cpp b/src/app/spellchecker.cpp
index 2245877c..2a7f2d5a 100644
--- a/src/app/spellchecker.cpp
+++ b/src/app/spellchecker.cpp
@@ -31,7 +31,10 @@
 
 SpellChecker::SpellChecker()
     : hunspell_(new Hunspell("", ""))
-{}
+{
+    // Initialize with default UTF-8 codec
+    codec_ = QTextCodec::codecForName("UTF-8");
+}
 
 bool
 SpellChecker::spell(const QString& word)
@@ -75,11 +78,26 @@ SpellChecker::replaceDictionary(const QString& dictionaryPath)
 
     QString dictFile = dictionaryPath + ".dic";
     QString affixFile = dictionaryPath + ".aff";
+
+    // Check if dictionary files exist
+    if (!QFile::exists(dictFile) || !QFile::exists(affixFile)) {
+        qWarning() << "Dictionary files not found:" << dictFile << affixFile;
+        return false;
+    }
+
     QByteArray dictFilePath = dictFile.toLocal8Bit();
     QByteArray affixFilePath = affixFile.toLocal8Bit();
-    hunspell_.reset(new Hunspell(affixFilePath.constData(), dictFilePath.constData()));
-    encoding_ =hunspell_->get_dic_encoding();
-    codec_ = QTextCodec::codecForName(this->encoding_.toLatin1().constData());
+
+    std::unique_ptr<Hunspell> hunspell(
+        new Hunspell(affixFilePath.constData(), dictFilePath.constData()));
+    auto encoding = hunspell->get_dic_encoding();
+    auto codec = QTextCodec::codecForName(encoding);
+    if (!codec) {
+        return false;
+    }
+
+    hunspell_ = std::move(hunspell);
+    codec_ = codec;
     currentDictionaryPath_ = dictionaryPath;
     return true;
 }
diff --git a/src/app/spellchecker.h b/src/app/spellchecker.h
index b57757f9..c6499886 100644
--- a/src/app/spellchecker.h
+++ b/src/app/spellchecker.h
@@ -57,6 +57,5 @@ private:
     std::unique_ptr<Hunspell> hunspell_;
 
     QString currentDictionaryPath_;
-    QString encoding_;
     QTextCodec* codec_;
 };