--- a/toolkit/components/thumbnails/PageThumbs.jsm
+++ b/toolkit/components/thumbnails/PageThumbs.jsm
@@ -250,17 +250,24 @@ this.PageThumbs = {
     }
     if (aBrowser.isRemoteBrowser) {
       let mm = aBrowser.messageManager;
       let resultFunc = function(aMsg) {
         mm.removeMessageListener("Browser:Thumbnail:CheckState:Response", resultFunc);
         aCallback(aMsg.data.result);
       }
       mm.addMessageListener("Browser:Thumbnail:CheckState:Response", resultFunc);
-      mm.sendAsyncMessage("Browser:Thumbnail:CheckState");
+      try {
+        mm.sendAsyncMessage("Browser:Thumbnail:CheckState");
+      } catch (ex) {
+        Cu.reportError(ex);
+        // If the message manager is not able send our message, taking a content
+        // screenshot is also not going to work: return false.
+        resultFunc({ data: { result: false } });
+      }
     } else {
       aCallback(PageThumbUtils.shouldStoreContentThumbnail(aBrowser.contentDocument,
                                                            aBrowser.docShell));
     }
   },
 
   // The background thumbnail service captures to canvas but doesn't want to
   // participate in this service's telemetry, which is why this method exists.