diff --git a/include/acl_selectors.php b/include/acl_selectors.php
index ea0a7aeb08..93dcdea742 100644
--- a/include/acl_selectors.php
+++ b/include/acl_selectors.php
@@ -612,7 +612,7 @@ function acl_lookup(&$a, $out_type = 'json') {
 				dbesc($search),
 				implode("','", $known_contacts)
 		);
-		if (is_array($r) && count($r)){
+		if (dba::is_result($r)){
 			foreach($r as $row) {
 				// nickname..
 				$up = parse_url($row['author-link']);
diff --git a/include/api.php b/include/api.php
index 3342655ac9..e25c15560e 100644
--- a/include/api.php
+++ b/include/api.php
@@ -2612,7 +2612,7 @@
 			intval(api_user())
 		);
 
-		if(is_array($r)) {
+		if(dba::is_result($r)) {
 
 			if($type === 'xml') {
 				header("Content-type: application/xml");