diff --git a/frontend/src/metabase/components/Modal.jsx b/frontend/src/metabase/components/Modal.jsx
index 04d97740acfd632b116169f0f7c4626b492199f8..5434c57e621f060e16fee1527f07d8fad0a07616 100644
--- a/frontend/src/metabase/components/Modal.jsx
+++ b/frontend/src/metabase/components/Modal.jsx
@@ -169,7 +169,10 @@ export class FullPageModal extends Component {
     }
 
     render() {
-        return null;
+        // NOTE Atte Keinänen 4/21/17
+        // IE11 requires some element to be rendered or otherwise componentWillUnmount will never be called
+        // I couldn't find an online reference of that issue
+        return <span className="fullpage-modal-render-placeholder"></span>;
     }
 }