diff --git a/message/lib.php b/message/lib.php
index f6ee1d85efd..4409bf943b8 100644
--- a/message/lib.php
+++ b/message/lib.php
@@ -1561,10 +1561,16 @@ function message_post_message($userfrom, $userto, $message, $format, $messagetyp
     //using string manager directly so that strings in the message will be in the message recipients language rather than the senders
     $eventdata->subject          = get_string_manager()->get_string('unreadnewmessage', 'message', fullname($userfrom), $userto->lang);
 
-    $eventdata->fullmessage      = $message;
+    if ($format==FORMAT_HTML) {
+        $eventdata->fullmessage      = '';
+        $eventdata->fullmessagehtml  = $message;
+    } else {
+        $eventdata->fullmessage      = $message;
+        $eventdata->fullmessagehtml  = '';
+    }
+    
     $eventdata->fullmessageformat = $format;
-    $eventdata->fullmessagehtml  = '';
-    $eventdata->smallmessage     = $message;
+    $eventdata->smallmessage     = strip_tags($message);//strip just in case there are is any html that would break the popup notification
 
     $s = new stdClass();
     $s->sitename = $SITE->shortname;
diff --git a/user/messageselect.php b/user/messageselect.php
index c44fdf9f0b3..3e3144a8b85 100644
--- a/user/messageselect.php
+++ b/user/messageselect.php
@@ -94,7 +94,7 @@ $count = 0;
 foreach ($_POST as $k => $v) {
     if (preg_match('/^(user|teacher)(\d+)$/',$k,$m)) {
         if (!array_key_exists($m[2],$SESSION->emailto[$id])) {
-            if ($user = $DB->get_record_select('user', "id = ?", array($m[2]), 'id,firstname,lastname,idnumber,email,mailformat,lastaccess')) {
+            if ($user = $DB->get_record_select('user', "id = ?", array($m[2]), 'id,firstname,lastname,idnumber,email,mailformat,lastaccess, lang')) {
                 $SESSION->emailto[$id][$m[2]] = $user;
                 $count++;
             }