diff --git a/mod/chat/gui_header_js/jsupdate.php b/mod/chat/gui_header_js/jsupdate.php
index f6825f5fddc..d288f0ed0dd 100644
--- a/mod/chat/gui_header_js/jsupdate.php
+++ b/mod/chat/gui_header_js/jsupdate.php
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@
     }
 
     //Get the user theme and enough info to be used in chat_format_message() which passes it along to
-    if (!$USER = get_record('user','id',$chatuser->userid,'','','','','id, lang, theme, username, timezone')) {
+    if (!$USER = get_record('user','id',$chatuser->userid)) { // no optimisation here, it would break again in future!
         error('User does not exist!');
     }
     $USER->description = '';
diff --git a/mod/chat/gui_header_js/jsupdated.php b/mod/chat/gui_header_js/jsupdated.php
index 13bc3369688..4bee2b32f6e 100644
--- a/mod/chat/gui_header_js/jsupdated.php
+++ b/mod/chat/gui_header_js/jsupdated.php
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@
 
     //Get the user theme and enough info to be used in chat_format_message() which passes it along to
     // chat_format_message_manually() -- and only id and timezone are used.
-    if (!$USER = get_record('user','id',$chatuser->userid,'','','','','id, lang, theme, username, timezone')) {
+    if (!$USER = get_record('user','id',$chatuser->userid)) { // no optimisation here, it would break again in future!
         error('User does not exist!');
     }
     $USER->description = '';
diff --git a/mod/chat/gui_header_js/users.php b/mod/chat/gui_header_js/users.php
index 35956794a96..8ceca1a30b3 100644
--- a/mod/chat/gui_header_js/users.php
+++ b/mod/chat/gui_header_js/users.php
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@
     }
 
     //Get the user theme and enough info to be used in chat_format_message() which passes it along to
-    if (!$USER = get_record('user','id',$chatuser->userid,'','','','','id, lang, theme, username, timezone')) {
+    if (!$USER = get_record('user','id',$chatuser->userid)) { // no optimisation here, it would break again in future!
         error('User does not exist!');
     }
     $USER->description = '';