diff --git a/instances/templates/allinstances_index_grouped.html b/instances/templates/allinstances_index_grouped.html
index 874b4dd8..c25c4358 100644
--- a/instances/templates/allinstances_index_grouped.html
+++ b/instances/templates/allinstances_index_grouped.html
@@ -88,6 +88,8 @@
                 {% endfor %}
             {% endif %}
         </tbody>
+    {% empty %}
+        <tbody></tbody>{# sortable.js needs a table body #}
     {% endfor %}
 </table>
 
diff --git a/instances/tests/test_index.py b/instances/tests/test_index.py
index 2acebeeb..9543ea60 100644
--- a/instances/tests/test_index.py
+++ b/instances/tests/test_index.py
@@ -2,11 +2,13 @@
 
 from unittest.mock import PropertyMock, patch
 
+from appsettings.models import AppSettings
 from computes.models import Compute
 from django.contrib.auth import get_user_model
 from django.test import TestCase
 from django.urls import reverse
 from instances.models import Instance
+from lxml import html
 
 
 class InstancesIndexTests(TestCase):
@@ -42,3 +44,10 @@ class InstancesIndexTests(TestCase):
         self.assertEqual(response.status_code, 200)
         self.assertNotContains(response, "test4")
         self.assertEqual(list(response.context["computes"][0].instance_set.all()), [])
+
+    def test_the_grouped_list_without_computes_has_a_table_body(self):
+        # sortable.js reads the first tbody's rows: without one it throws and leaves the table unsortable
+        AppSettings.objects.filter(key="VIEW_INSTANCES_LIST_STYLE").update(value="grouped")
+        self.client.force_login(get_user_model().objects.create_superuser("grouped-admin", "g@example.com", "pw"))
+        page = html.fromstring(self.client.get(reverse("instances:index")).content)
+        self.assertEqual(len(page.xpath("//table[@data-sortable]/tbody")), 1)