diff --git a/.github/workflows/gen-db.yml b/.github/workflows/gen-db.yml
index 806466d9b..49d62896a 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/gen-db.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/gen-db.yml
@@ -4,8 +4,6 @@ name: Generate Database
 
 on:
   workflow_dispatch:  # manual execution
-  schedule:
-    - cron:  '0 12 15 * *' # 12:00 UTC on the 15th of each month
 
 jobs:
   build:
diff --git a/tests/test_integrity.py b/tests/test_integrity.py
index 716517ecf..2babf6caf 100644
--- a/tests/test_integrity.py
+++ b/tests/test_integrity.py
@@ -183,7 +183,12 @@ def test_source_simbad(db):
     # Get a nicely formatted list of Simbad names for each input row
     duplicate_count = 0
     for row in simbad_results[['TYPED_ID', 'IDS']].iterrows():
-        name, ids = row[0].decode("utf-8"), row[1].decode("utf-8")
+        try:
+            name, ids = row[0].decode("utf-8"), row[1].decode("utf-8")
+        except AttributeError:
+            # Catch decoding error
+            name, ids = row[0], row[1]
+
         simbad_names = [_name_formatter(s) for s in ids.split('|')
                         if _name_formatter(s) != '' and _name_formatter(s) is not None]