diff --git a/.github/workflows/release.yaml b/.github/workflows/release.yaml
index 331d6d48..09703ed3 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release.yaml
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ jobs:
       - name: Set up Go
         uses: actions/setup-go@v3
         with:
-          go-version: '1.19.4'
+          go-version: '>=1.20.0'
 
       # This step usually is not needed because the /ui/dist is pregenerated locally
       # but its here to ensure that each release embeds the latest admin ui artifacts.
diff --git a/daos/table.go b/daos/table.go
index c10a2d93..82bd8a14 100644
--- a/daos/table.go
+++ b/daos/table.go
@@ -39,8 +39,17 @@ func (dao *Dao) GetTableInfo(tableName string) ([]*models.TableInfoRow, error) {
 	err := dao.DB().NewQuery("SELECT * FROM PRAGMA_TABLE_INFO({:tableName})").
 		Bind(dbx.Params{"tableName": tableName}).
 		All(&info)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
 
-	return info, err
+	// mattn/go-sqlite3 doesn't throw an error on invalid or missing table
+	// so we additionally have to check whether the loaded info result is nonempty
+	if len(info) == 0 {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("empty table info probably due to invalid or missing table %s", tableName)
+	}
+
+	return info, nil
 }
 
 // DeleteTable drops the specified table.
diff --git a/daos/table_test.go b/daos/table_test.go
index 04e8281a..533d71d3 100644
--- a/daos/table_test.go
+++ b/daos/table_test.go
@@ -70,8 +70,8 @@ func TestGetTableInfo(t *testing.T) {
 		tableName string
 		expected  string
 	}{
-		{"", "[]"},
-		{"missing", "[]"},
+		{"", "null"},
+		{"missing", "null"},
 		{
 			"_admins",
 			`[{"PK":1,"Index":0,"Name":"id","Type":"TEXT","NotNull":false,"DefaultValue":null},{"PK":0,"Index":1,"Name":"avatar","Type":"INTEGER","NotNull":true,"DefaultValue":0},{"PK":0,"Index":2,"Name":"email","Type":"TEXT","NotNull":true,"DefaultValue":null},{"PK":0,"Index":3,"Name":"tokenKey","Type":"TEXT","NotNull":true,"DefaultValue":null},{"PK":0,"Index":4,"Name":"passwordHash","Type":"TEXT","NotNull":true,"DefaultValue":null},{"PK":0,"Index":5,"Name":"lastResetSentAt","Type":"TEXT","NotNull":true,"DefaultValue":""},{"PK":0,"Index":6,"Name":"created","Type":"TEXT","NotNull":true,"DefaultValue":""},{"PK":0,"Index":7,"Name":"updated","Type":"TEXT","NotNull":true,"DefaultValue":""}]`,