diff --git a/lib/src/event.dart b/lib/src/event.dart
index cbd96f0..1462bc7 100644
--- a/lib/src/event.dart
+++ b/lib/src/event.dart
@@ -428,10 +428,10 @@ class Event {
   /// Trys to decrypt this event and persists it in the database afterwards
   Future<Event> decryptAndStore([String updateType = 'timeline']) async {
     final newEvent = decrypted;
-    if (newEvent.type == EventTypes.Encrypted || room.client.database == null) {
-      return newEvent; // decryption failed or we don't have a database
+    if (newEvent.type == EventTypes.Encrypted) {
+      return newEvent; // decryption failed
     }
-    await room.client.database.storeEventUpdate(
+    await room.client.database?.storeEventUpdate(
       room.client.id,
       EventUpdate(
         eventType: newEvent.typeKey,
@@ -441,6 +441,9 @@ class Event {
         sortOrder: newEvent.sortOrder,
       ),
     );
+    if (updateType != 'history') {
+      room.setState(newEvent);
+    }
     return newEvent;
   }
 
diff --git a/lib/src/room.dart b/lib/src/room.dart
index 1823d3e..4a4612e 100644
--- a/lib/src/room.dart
+++ b/lib/src/room.dart
@@ -273,10 +273,7 @@ class Room {
 
   Future<void> _tryAgainDecryptLastMessage() async {
     if (getState('m.room.encrypted') != null) {
-      final decrypted = await getState('m.room.encrypted').decryptAndStore();
-      if (decrypted.type != EventTypes.Encrypted) {
-        setState(decrypted);
-      }
+      await getState('m.room.encrypted').decryptAndStore();
     }
   }
 
@@ -405,14 +402,22 @@ class Room {
   String notificationSettings;
 
   Event get lastEvent {
-    var lastSortOrder = -1e32; // this bound to be small enough
+    // as lastEvent calculation is based on the state events we unfortunately cannot
+    // use sortOrder here: With many state events we just know which ones are the
+    // newest ones, without knowing in which order they actually happened. As such,
+    // using the origin_server_ts is the best guess for this algorithm. While not
+    // perfect, it is only used for the room preview in the room list and sorting
+    // said room list, so it should be good enough.
+    var lastTime = DateTime.fromMillisecondsSinceEpoch(0);
     var lastEvent = getState('m.room.message');
     if (lastEvent == null) {
       states.forEach((final String key, final entry) {
         if (!entry.containsKey('')) return;
         final Event state = entry[''];
-        if (state.sortOrder != null && state.sortOrder > lastSortOrder) {
-          lastSortOrder = state.sortOrder;
+        if (state.time != null &&
+            state.time.millisecondsSinceEpoch >
+                lastTime.millisecondsSinceEpoch) {
+          lastTime = state.time;
           lastEvent = state;
         }
       });