diff --git a/scrapy/utils/misc.py b/scrapy/utils/misc.py
index 52cfba208..ab7cf9deb 100644
--- a/scrapy/utils/misc.py
+++ b/scrapy/utils/misc.py
@@ -137,17 +137,26 @@ def create_instance(objcls, settings, crawler, *args, **kwargs):
     ``*args`` and ``**kwargs`` are forwarded to the constructors.
 
     Raises ``ValueError`` if both ``settings`` and ``crawler`` are ``None``.
+
+    Raises ``TypeError`` if the resulting instance is ``None`` (e.g. if an
+    extension has not been implemented correctly).
     """
     if settings is None:
         if crawler is None:
             raise ValueError("Specify at least one of settings and crawler.")
         settings = crawler.settings
     if crawler and hasattr(objcls, 'from_crawler'):
-        return objcls.from_crawler(crawler, *args, **kwargs)
+        instance = objcls.from_crawler(crawler, *args, **kwargs)
+        method_name = 'from_crawler'
     elif hasattr(objcls, 'from_settings'):
-        return objcls.from_settings(settings, *args, **kwargs)
+        instance = objcls.from_settings(settings, *args, **kwargs)
+        method_name = 'from_settings'
     else:
-        return objcls(*args, **kwargs)
+        instance = objcls(*args, **kwargs)
+        method_name = '__new__'
+    if instance is None:
+        raise TypeError("%s.%s returned None" % (objcls.__qualname__, method_name))
+    return instance
 
 
 @contextmanager
diff --git a/tests/test_utils_misc/__init__.py b/tests/test_utils_misc/__init__.py
index 6f945cd01..015a0e5a2 100644
--- a/tests/test_utils_misc/__init__.py
+++ b/tests/test_utils_misc/__init__.py
@@ -114,8 +114,12 @@ class UtilsMiscTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
         #   2. with from_settings() constructor
         #   3. with from_crawler() constructor
         #   4. with from_settings() and from_crawler() constructor
-        spec_sets = ([], ['from_settings'], ['from_crawler'],
-                     ['from_settings', 'from_crawler'])
+        spec_sets = (
+            ['__qualname__'],
+            ['__qualname__', 'from_settings'],
+            ['__qualname__', 'from_crawler'],
+            ['__qualname__', 'from_settings', 'from_crawler'],
+        )
         for specs in spec_sets:
             m = mock.MagicMock(spec_set=specs)
             _test_with_settings(m, settings)
@@ -123,7 +127,7 @@ class UtilsMiscTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
             _test_with_crawler(m, settings, crawler)
 
         # Check adoption of crawler settings
-        m = mock.MagicMock(spec_set=['from_settings'])
+        m = mock.MagicMock(spec_set=['__qualname__', 'from_settings'])
         create_instance(m, None, crawler, *args, **kwargs)
         m.from_settings.assert_called_once_with(crawler.settings, *args,
                                                 **kwargs)
@@ -131,6 +135,10 @@ class UtilsMiscTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
         with self.assertRaises(ValueError):
             create_instance(m, None, None)
 
+        m.from_settings.return_value = None
+        with self.assertRaises(TypeError):
+            create_instance(m, settings, None)
+
     def test_set_environ(self):
         assert os.environ.get('some_test_environ') is None
         with set_environ(some_test_environ='test_value'):