diff --git a/api/database/boltdb/json.go b/api/database/boltdb/json.go
index d2daaf0d2..d2f70dbe8 100644
--- a/api/database/boltdb/json.go
+++ b/api/database/boltdb/json.go
@@ -8,12 +8,29 @@ import (
 
 // MarshalObject encodes an object to binary format
 func MarshalObject(object interface{}) ([]byte, error) {
+	// Special case for the VERSION bucket. Here we're not using json
+	if v, ok := object.(string); ok {
+		return []byte(v), nil
+	}
+
 	return json.Marshal(object)
 }
 
 // UnmarshalObject decodes an object from binary data
 func UnmarshalObject(data []byte, object interface{}) error {
-	return json.Unmarshal(data, object)
+	// Special case for the VERSION bucket. Here we're not using json
+	// So we need to return it as a string
+	err := json.Unmarshal(data, object)
+	if err != nil {
+		if s, ok := object.(*string); ok {
+			*s = string(data)
+			return nil
+		}
+
+		return err
+	}
+
+	return nil
 }
 
 // UnmarshalObjectWithJsoniter decodes an object from binary data
diff --git a/api/database/boltdb/json_test.go b/api/database/boltdb/json_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..d60e73d6e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/api/database/boltdb/json_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,122 @@
+package boltdb
+
+import (
+	"fmt"
+	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/gofrs/uuid"
+	"github.com/stretchr/testify/assert"
+)
+
+const jsonobject = `{"LogoURL":"","BlackListedLabels":[],"AuthenticationMethod":1,"LDAPSettings":{"AnonymousMode":true,"ReaderDN":"","URL":"","TLSConfig":{"TLS":false,"TLSSkipVerify":false},"StartTLS":false,"SearchSettings":[{"BaseDN":"","Filter":"","UserNameAttribute":""}],"GroupSearchSettings":[{"GroupBaseDN":"","GroupFilter":"","GroupAttribute":""}],"AutoCreateUsers":true},"OAuthSettings":{"ClientID":"","AccessTokenURI":"","AuthorizationURI":"","ResourceURI":"","RedirectURI":"","UserIdentifier":"","Scopes":"","OAuthAutoCreateUsers":false,"DefaultTeamID":0,"SSO":true,"LogoutURI":"","KubeSecretKey":"j0zLVtY/lAWBk62ByyF0uP80SOXaitsABP0TTJX8MhI="},"OpenAMTConfiguration":{"Enabled":false,"MPSServer":"","Credentials":{"MPSUser":"","MPSPassword":"","MPSToken":""},"DomainConfiguration":{"CertFileText":"","CertPassword":"","DomainName":""},"WirelessConfiguration":null},"FeatureFlagSettings":{},"SnapshotInterval":"5m","TemplatesURL":"https://raw.githubusercontent.com/portainer/templates/master/templates-2.0.json","EdgeAgentCheckinInterval":5,"EnableEdgeComputeFeatures":false,"UserSessionTimeout":"8h","KubeconfigExpiry":"0","EnableTelemetry":true,"HelmRepositoryURL":"https://charts.bitnami.com/bitnami","KubectlShellImage":"portainer/kubectl-shell","DisplayDonationHeader":false,"DisplayExternalContributors":false,"EnableHostManagementFeatures":false,"AllowVolumeBrowserForRegularUsers":false,"AllowBindMountsForRegularUsers":false,"AllowPrivilegedModeForRegularUsers":false,"AllowHostNamespaceForRegularUsers":false,"AllowStackManagementForRegularUsers":false,"AllowDeviceMappingForRegularUsers":false,"AllowContainerCapabilitiesForRegularUsers":false}`
+
+func Test_MarshalObject(t *testing.T) {
+	is := assert.New(t)
+
+	uuid := uuid.Must(uuid.NewV4())
+
+	tests := []struct {
+		object   interface{}
+		expected string
+	}{
+		{
+			object:   nil,
+			expected: `null`,
+		},
+		{
+			object:   true,
+			expected: `true`,
+		},
+		{
+			object:   false,
+			expected: `false`,
+		},
+		{
+			object:   123,
+			expected: `123`,
+		},
+		{
+			object:   "456",
+			expected: "456",
+		},
+		{
+			object:   uuid,
+			expected: "\"" + uuid.String() + "\"",
+		},
+		{
+			object:   uuid.String(),
+			expected: uuid.String(),
+		},
+		{
+			object:   map[string]interface{}{"key": "value"},
+			expected: `{"key":"value"}`,
+		},
+		{
+			object:   []bool{true, false},
+			expected: `[true,false]`,
+		},
+		{
+			object:   []int{1, 2, 3},
+			expected: `[1,2,3]`,
+		},
+		{
+			object:   []string{"1", "2", "3"},
+			expected: `["1","2","3"]`,
+		},
+		{
+			object:   []map[string]interface{}{{"key1": "value1"}, {"key2": "value2"}},
+			expected: `[{"key1":"value1"},{"key2":"value2"}]`,
+		},
+		{
+			object:   []interface{}{1, "2", false, map[string]interface{}{"key1": "value1"}},
+			expected: `[1,"2",false,{"key1":"value1"}]`,
+		},
+	}
+
+	for _, test := range tests {
+		t.Run(fmt.Sprintf("%s -> %s", test.object, test.expected), func(t *testing.T) {
+			data, err := MarshalObject(test.object)
+			is.NoError(err)
+			is.Equal(test.expected, string(data))
+		})
+	}
+}
+
+func Test_UnMarshalObject(t *testing.T) {
+	is := assert.New(t)
+
+	// Based on actual data entering and what we expect out of the function
+
+	tests := []struct {
+		object   []byte
+		expected string
+	}{
+		{
+			object:   []byte(""),
+			expected: "",
+		},
+		{
+			object:   []byte("35"),
+			expected: "35",
+		},
+		{
+			// An unmarshalled byte string should return the same without error
+			object:   []byte("9ca4a1dd-a439-4593-b386-a7dfdc2e9fc6"),
+			expected: "9ca4a1dd-a439-4593-b386-a7dfdc2e9fc6",
+		},
+		{
+			// An unmarshalled json object string should return the same as a string without error also
+			object:   []byte(jsonobject),
+			expected: jsonobject,
+		},
+	}
+
+	for _, test := range tests {
+		t.Run(fmt.Sprintf("%s -> %s", test.object, test.expected), func(t *testing.T) {
+			var object string
+			err := UnmarshalObject(test.object, &object)
+			is.NoError(err)
+			is.Equal(test.expected, string(object))
+		})
+	}
+}