In org-imenu-get-tree, (when (<= level n) (looking-at org-complex-heading-regexp) (setq head (org-link-display-format (org-match-string-no-properties 4)) m (org-imenu-new-marker)) should probably be (when (and (<= level n) (looking-at org-complex-heading-regexp)) (setq head (org-link-display-format (org-match-string-no-properties 4)) m (org-imenu-new-marker)) ... i had an headling which (accidentally) consisted of just a todo keyword, making (org-match-string-no-properties 4) nil.