diff --git a/modules/Bio/EnsEMBL/Utils/ConversionSupport.pm b/modules/Bio/EnsEMBL/Utils/ConversionSupport.pm
index 9bc97f118e1177efa8778da04fccee302b3f8de8..9e5270fa591358ea1f305c32a9c7b85743868e3d 100644
--- a/modules/Bio/EnsEMBL/Utils/ConversionSupport.pm
+++ b/modules/Bio/EnsEMBL/Utils/ConversionSupport.pm
@@ -643,7 +643,7 @@ sub get_database {
             -host   => $self->param("${prefix}host"),
             -port   => $self->param("${prefix}port"),
             -user   => $self->param("${prefix}user"),
-            -pass   => $self->param("${prefix}pass"),
+            -pass   => $self->param("${prefix}pass") || '',
             -dbname => $self->param("${prefix}dbname"),
             -group  => $database,
     );