diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index a4c3cc21..0eb390bc 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ Thanks to @nate-sys and @jubalh for contributing to this release.
 - `/join` command errors now print usage help once instead of twice.
 - Fix showing timestamp of the next message or activity after a `/clear`.
   (#417)
+- Fix a crash when the config file is deleted before a `/reload`.
 
 # 2023/07/16: 0.11.0
 
diff --git a/crates/libtiny_tui/src/config.rs b/crates/libtiny_tui/src/config.rs
index 560893fc..336f6b15 100644
--- a/crates/libtiny_tui/src/config.rs
+++ b/crates/libtiny_tui/src/config.rs
@@ -5,8 +5,6 @@ use libtiny_common::{ChanName, ChanNameRef};
 use serde::de::{self, Deserializer, MapAccess, Visitor};
 use serde::Deserialize;
 use std::collections::HashMap;
-use std::fs::File;
-use std::io::Read;
 use std::path::Path;
 use std::str::FromStr;
 
@@ -510,12 +508,14 @@ impl<'de> Deserialize<'de> for Style {
 }
 
 pub(crate) fn parse_config(config_path: &Path) -> Result<Config, serde_yaml::Error> {
-    let contents = {
-        let mut str = String::new();
-        let mut file = File::open(config_path).unwrap();
-        file.read_to_string(&mut str).unwrap();
-        str
-    };
-
+    // tiny creates a config file with the defaults when it can't find one, but the config file can
+    // be deleted before a `/reload`.
+    let contents = std::fs::read_to_string(config_path).map_err(|err| {
+        de::Error::custom(format!(
+            "Can't read config file '{}': {}",
+            config_path.to_string_lossy(),
+            err
+        ))
+    })?;
     serde_yaml::from_str(&contents)
 }
diff --git a/crates/libtiny_tui/src/tui.rs b/crates/libtiny_tui/src/tui.rs
index b4c4abf1..ba950d30 100644
--- a/crates/libtiny_tui/src/tui.rs
+++ b/crates/libtiny_tui/src/tui.rs
@@ -344,7 +344,7 @@ impl TUI {
             match parse_config(config_path) {
                 Err(err) => {
                     self.add_client_err_msg(
-                        &format!("Can't parse TUI config: {:?}", err),
+                        &format!("Can't parse TUI config: {}", err),
                         &MsgTarget::CurrentTab,
                     );
                     None