diff --git a/src/applications/transactions/editfield/PhabricatorRemarkupEditField.php b/src/applications/transactions/editfield/PhabricatorRemarkupEditField.php
index a299aa0b5c..a2e0debd39 100644
--- a/src/applications/transactions/editfield/PhabricatorRemarkupEditField.php
+++ b/src/applications/transactions/editfield/PhabricatorRemarkupEditField.php
@@ -1,47 +1,73 @@
 <?php
 
 final class PhabricatorRemarkupEditField
   extends PhabricatorEditField {
 
   protected function newControl() {
     return new PhabricatorRemarkupControl();
   }
 
   protected function newHTTPParameterType() {
     return new AphrontRemarkupHTTPParameterType();
   }
 
   protected function newConduitParameterType() {
     return new ConduitStringParameterType();
   }
 
   protected function newBulkParameterType() {
     return new BulkRemarkupParameterType();
   }
 
   public function getValueForTransaction() {
     $value = $this->getValue();
 
     if ($value instanceof RemarkupValue) {
       $value = $value->getCorpus();
     }
 
     return $value;
   }
 
+  public function getValueForDefaults() {
+    $value = parent::getValueForDefaults();
+
+    if ($value instanceof RemarkupValue) {
+      $value = $value->getCorpus();
+    }
+
+    return $value;
+  }
+
+  protected function getDefaultValueFromConfiguration($value) {
+
+    // See T13685. After changes to file attachment handling, the database
+    // was briefly poisoned with "array()" values as defaults.
+
+    try {
+      $value = phutil_string_cast($value);
+    } catch (Exception $ex) {
+      $value = '';
+    } catch (Throwable $ex) {
+      $value = '';
+    }
+
+    return $value;
+  }
+
   public function getMetadata() {
     $defaults = array();
 
     $value = $this->getValue();
     if ($value instanceof RemarkupValue) {
       $defaults['remarkup.control'] = $value->getMetadata();
     }
 
     $metadata = parent::getMetadata();
     $metadata = $metadata + $defaults;
 
     return $metadata;
   }
 
 
 }
diff --git a/src/view/form/control/AphrontFormTextAreaControl.php b/src/view/form/control/AphrontFormTextAreaControl.php
index 2665c6aaa7..e548916fbb 100644
--- a/src/view/form/control/AphrontFormTextAreaControl.php
+++ b/src/view/form/control/AphrontFormTextAreaControl.php
@@ -1,98 +1,98 @@
 <?php
 
 /**
  * @concrete-extensible
  */
 class AphrontFormTextAreaControl extends AphrontFormControl {
 
   const HEIGHT_VERY_SHORT = 'very-short';
   const HEIGHT_SHORT      = 'short';
   const HEIGHT_VERY_TALL  = 'very-tall';
 
   private $height;
   private $readOnly;
   private $customClass;
   private $placeHolder;
   private $sigil;
 
   public function setSigil($sigil) {
     $this->sigil = $sigil;
     return $this;
   }
 
   public function getSigil() {
     return $this->sigil;
   }
 
   public function setPlaceHolder($place_holder) {
     $this->placeHolder = $place_holder;
     return $this;
   }
   private function getPlaceHolder() {
     return $this->placeHolder;
   }
 
   public function setHeight($height) {
     $this->height = $height;
     return $this;
   }
 
   public function setReadOnly($read_only) {
     $this->readOnly = $read_only;
     return $this;
   }
 
   protected function getReadOnly() {
     return $this->readOnly;
   }
 
   protected function getCustomControlClass() {
     return 'aphront-form-control-textarea';
   }
 
   public function setCustomClass($custom_class) {
     $this->customClass = $custom_class;
     return $this;
   }
 
   protected function renderInput() {
 
     $height_class = null;
     switch ($this->height) {
       case self::HEIGHT_VERY_SHORT:
       case self::HEIGHT_SHORT:
       case self::HEIGHT_VERY_TALL:
         $height_class = 'aphront-textarea-'.$this->height;
         break;
     }
 
     $classes = array();
     $classes[] = $height_class;
     $classes[] = $this->customClass;
     $classes = trim(implode(' ', $classes));
 
     // NOTE: This needs to be string cast, because if we pass `null` the
     // tag will be self-closed and some browsers aren't thrilled about that.
-    $value = (string)$this->getValue();
+    $value = phutil_string_cast($this->getValue());
 
     // NOTE: We also need to prefix the string with a newline, because browsers
     // ignore a newline immediately after a <textarea> tag, so they'll eat
     // leading newlines if we don't do this. See T8707.
     $value = "\n".$value;
 
     return javelin_tag(
       'textarea',
       array(
         'name'        => $this->getName(),
         'disabled'    => $this->getDisabled() ? 'disabled' : null,
         'readonly'    => $this->getReadOnly() ? 'readonly' : null,
         'class'       => $classes,
         'style'       => $this->getControlStyle(),
         'id'          => $this->getID(),
         'sigil'       => $this->sigil,
         'placeholder' => $this->getPlaceHolder(),
       ),
       $value);
   }
 
 }