diff --git a/src/components/views/rooms/MessageComposer.js b/src/components/views/rooms/MessageComposer.js
index 4d00927767..28502c348d 100644
--- a/src/components/views/rooms/MessageComposer.js
+++ b/src/components/views/rooms/MessageComposer.js
@@ -354,7 +354,7 @@ export default class MessageComposer extends React.Component {
         }
 
         let formatBar;
-        if (this.state.showFormatting) {
+        if (this.state.showFormatting && this.state.inputState.isRichTextEnabled) {
             const {marks, blockType} = this.state.inputState;
             const formatButtons = ["bold", "italic", "deleted", "underlined", "code", "block-quote", "bulleted-list", "numbered-list"].map(
                 (name) => {
diff --git a/src/components/views/rooms/MessageComposerInput.js b/src/components/views/rooms/MessageComposerInput.js
index 2d5e6d050d..2bb35c5656 100644
--- a/src/components/views/rooms/MessageComposerInput.js
+++ b/src/components/views/rooms/MessageComposerInput.js
@@ -1405,9 +1405,7 @@ export default class MessageComposerInput extends React.Component {
     };
 
     onFormatButtonClicked = (name, e) => {
-        if (e) {
-            e.preventDefault(); // don't steal focus from the editor!
-        }
+        e.preventDefault(); // don't steal focus from the editor!
 
         // XXX: horrible evil hack to ensure the editor is focused so the act
         // of focusing it doesn't then cancel the format button being pressed