diff --git a/app/assets/javascripts/app/app.frontend.js b/app/assets/javascripts/app/app.frontend.js
index 7159af495..f19dfe4fd 100644
--- a/app/assets/javascripts/app/app.frontend.js
+++ b/app/assets/javascripts/app/app.frontend.js
@@ -2,7 +2,11 @@
 
 var Neeto = Neeto || {};
 
-if(window.crypto.subtle) {
+// detect IE8 and above, and edge.
+// IE and Edge do not support pbkdf2 in WebCrypto, therefore we need to use CryptoJS
+var IEOrEdge = document.documentMode || /Edge/.test(navigator.userAgent);
+
+if(!IEOrEdge && (window.crypto && window.crypto.subtle)) {
   Neeto.crypto = new SNCryptoWeb();
 } else {
   Neeto.crypto = new SNCryptoJS();
diff --git a/app/assets/javascripts/app/frontend/models/api/item.js b/app/assets/javascripts/app/frontend/models/api/item.js
index e54468388..90c180943 100644
--- a/app/assets/javascripts/app/frontend/models/api/item.js
+++ b/app/assets/javascripts/app/frontend/models/api/item.js
@@ -27,7 +27,12 @@ class Item {
       return this.content;
     }
 
-    return JSON.parse(this.content);
+    try {
+      return JSON.parse(this.content);
+    } catch (e) {
+      console.log("Error parsing json", e);
+      return {};
+    }
   }
 
   updateFromJSON(json) {
diff --git a/app/assets/javascripts/app/services/apiController.js b/app/assets/javascripts/app/services/apiController.js
index 3f02488f6..7c4e163b1 100644
--- a/app/assets/javascripts/app/services/apiController.js
+++ b/app/assets/javascripts/app/services/apiController.js
@@ -90,7 +90,7 @@ angular.module('app.frontend')
         // if user has high password cost and is using browser that doesn't support WebCrypto,
         // we want to tell them that they can't login with this browser.
         if(cost > 5000) {
-          return window.crypto.subtle ? true : false;
+          return Neeto.crypto instanceof SNCryptoWeb ? true : false;
         } else {
           return true;
         }
@@ -581,7 +581,7 @@ angular.module('app.frontend')
                  item.content = Neeto.crypto.base64Decode(item.content.substring(3, item.content.length))
                }
              } catch (e) {
-               console.log("Error decrypting item", item);
+               console.log("Error decrypting item", item, e);
                continue;
              }
            }
diff --git a/app/assets/javascripts/app/services/extensionManager.js b/app/assets/javascripts/app/services/extensionManager.js
index b31997fda..e06aa527b 100644
--- a/app/assets/javascripts/app/services/extensionManager.js
+++ b/app/assets/javascripts/app/services/extensionManager.js
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ class ExtensionManager {
           ext.encrypted = this.extensionUsesEncryptedData(ext);
 
           for (var action of ext.actions) {
-            if(this.enabledRepeatActionUrls.includes(action.url)) {
+            if(_.includes(this.enabledRepeatActionUrls, action.url)) {
               this.enableRepeatAction(action, ext);
             }
           }
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ class ExtensionManager {
   }
 
   extensionUsesEncryptedData(extension) {
-    return !this.decryptedExtensions.includes(extension.url);
+    return !_.includes(this.decryptedExtensions, extension.url);
   }
 
   changeExtensionEncryptionFormat(encrypted, extension) {
@@ -174,7 +174,7 @@ class ExtensionManager {
   }
 
   isRepeatActionEnabled(action) {
-    return this.enabledRepeatActionUrls.includes(action.url);
+    return _.includes(this.enabledRepeatActionUrls, action.url);
   }
 
   disableRepeatAction(action, extension) {
diff --git a/app/assets/javascripts/app/services/helpers/webcrypto.js b/app/assets/javascripts/app/services/helpers/webcrypto.js
index e72fbca02..d4c015942 100644
--- a/app/assets/javascripts/app/services/helpers/webcrypto.js
+++ b/app/assets/javascripts/app/services/helpers/webcrypto.js
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-var subtleCrypto = window.crypto.subtle;
+var subtleCrypto = window.crypto ? window.crypto.subtle : null;
 
 class SNCryptoWeb extends SNCrypto {
 
@@ -89,8 +89,16 @@ class SNCryptoWeb extends SNCrypto {
   }
 
   stringToArrayBuffer(string) {
-     var encoder = new TextEncoder("utf-8");
-     return encoder.encode(string);
+    // not available on Edge/IE
+    // var encoder = new TextEncoder("utf-8");
+    // var result = encoder.encode(string);
+
+     var buf = new ArrayBuffer(string.length);
+     var bufView = new Uint8Array(buf);
+     for (var i=0, strLen=string.length; i<strLen; i++) {
+       bufView[i] = string.charCodeAt(i);
+     }
+     return buf;
    }
 
   arrayBufferToHexString(arrayBuffer) {
diff --git a/app/assets/javascripts/app/services/modelManager.js b/app/assets/javascripts/app/services/modelManager.js
index 06d2cedd0..3291eb98f 100644
--- a/app/assets/javascripts/app/services/modelManager.js
+++ b/app/assets/javascripts/app/services/modelManager.js
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ class ModelManager {
 
   allItemsMatchingTypes(contentTypes) {
     return this.items.filter(function(item){
-      return (contentTypes.includes(item.content_type) || contentTypes.includes("*")) && !item.dummy;
+      return (_.includes(contentTypes, item.content_type) || _.includes(contentTypes, "*")) && !item.dummy;
     })
   }
 
@@ -83,7 +83,7 @@ class ModelManager {
   notifyItemChangeObserversOfModels(models) {
     for(var observer of this.itemChangeObservers) {
       var relevantItems = models.filter(function(item){
-        return observer.content_types.includes(item.content_type) || observer.content_types.includes("*");
+        return _.includes(observer.content_types, item.content_type) || _.includes(observer.content_types, "*");
       });
 
       if(relevantItems.length > 0) {
diff --git a/app/views/application/frontend.html.erb b/app/views/application/frontend.html.erb
index 429187e7f..5e965dc17 100644
--- a/app/views/application/frontend.html.erb
+++ b/app/views/application/frontend.html.erb
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
+<!DOCTYPE html>
 <html ng-app="app.frontend" ng-controller="BaseCtrl">
   <head>
     <meta charset="utf-8"/>