diff --git a/encutils/__init__.py b/encutils/__init__.py
index 02922be..8a85574 100644
--- a/encutils/__init__.py
+++ b/encutils/__init__.py
@@ -442,7 +442,7 @@ def tryEncodings(text, log=None):  # noqa: C901
 
         encoding = chardet.detect(text)["encoding"]
 
-    except ImportError:
+    except (ImportError, AttributeError):
         msg = 'Using simplified encoding detection, you might want to install chardet.'
         if log:
             log.warn(msg)
encutils-1.0.0 on  main [!] is 📦 v1.0.0 via 🐍 v3.13.13 
❯ hx encutils/__init__.py
encutils-1.0.0 on  main [!] is 📦 v1.0.0 via 🐍 v3.13.13 took 59s 
❯ git diff
diff --git a/encutils/__init__.py b/encutils/__init__.py
index 02922be..100e06e 100644
--- a/encutils/__init__.py
+++ b/encutils/__init__.py
@@ -441,6 +441,8 @@ def tryEncodings(text, log=None):  # noqa: C901
         import chardet
 
         encoding = chardet.detect(text)["encoding"]
+        if encoding is not None:
+            return encoding
 
     except ImportError:
         msg = 'Using simplified encoding detection, you might want to install chardet.'
@@ -449,27 +451,27 @@ def tryEncodings(text, log=None):  # noqa: C901
         else:
             print(msg)
 
-        encodings = (
-            'ascii',
-            'iso-8859-1',
-            # 'windows-1252', # test later
-            'utf-8',
-        )
-        encoding = None
-        for e in encodings:
-            try:
-                text.decode(e)
-            except UnicodeDecodeError:
-                pass
-            else:
-                if 'iso-8859-1' == e:
-                    try:
-                        if '€' in text.decode('windows-1252'):
-                            return 'windows-1252'
-                    except UnicodeDecodeError:
-                        pass
-
-                return e
+    encodings = (
+        'ascii',
+        'iso-8859-1',
+        # 'windows-1252', # test later
+        'utf-8',
+    )
+    encoding = None
+    for e in encodings:
+        try:
+            text.decode(e)
+        except UnicodeDecodeError:
+            pass
+        else:
+            if 'iso-8859-1' == e:
+                try:
+                    if '€' in text.decode('windows-1252'):
+                        return 'windows-1252'
+                except UnicodeDecodeError:
+                    pass
+
+            return e
 
     return encoding