diff --git a/HISTORY.rst b/HISTORY.rst
index 5cdacecc..6ea89cfe 100644
--- a/HISTORY.rst
+++ b/HISTORY.rst
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ PlatformIO 4.0
 * Renamed "enable_ssl" setting to `strict_ssl <http://docs.platformio.org/page/userguide/cmd_settings.html#strict-ssl>`__
 * Fixed an issue with incorrect escaping of Windows slashes when using `PIO Unified Debugger <http://docs.platformio.org/page/plus/debugging.html>`__ and "piped" openOCD
 * Fixed an issue when "debug", "home", "run", and "test" commands were not shown in "platformio --help" CLI
+* Fixed an issue with PIO Home's "No JSON object could be decoded" (`issue #2823 <https://github.com/platformio/platformio-core/issues/2823>`_)
 
 4.0.0 (2019-07-10)
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
diff --git a/platformio/commands/home/rpc/handlers/piocore.py b/platformio/commands/home/rpc/handlers/piocore.py
index cb5651bf..4fa13b1a 100644
--- a/platformio/commands/home/rpc/handlers/piocore.py
+++ b/platformio/commands/home/rpc/handlers/piocore.py
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ from io import BytesIO, StringIO
 
 import click
 import jsonrpc  # pylint: disable=import-error
+from twisted.internet import defer  # pylint: disable=import-error
 from twisted.internet import threads  # pylint: disable=import-error
 from twisted.internet import utils  # pylint: disable=import-error
 
@@ -68,6 +69,10 @@ class MultiThreadingStdStream(object):
 
 class PIOCoreRPC(object):
 
+    @staticmethod
+    def version():
+        return __version__
+
     @staticmethod
     def setup_multithreading_std_streams():
         if isinstance(sys.stdout, MultiThreadingStdStream):
@@ -79,41 +84,67 @@ class PIOCoreRPC(object):
 
     @staticmethod
     def call(args, options=None):
-        PIOCoreRPC.setup_multithreading_std_streams()
-        cwd = (options or {}).get("cwd") or os.getcwd()
+        return defer.maybeDeferred(PIOCoreRPC._call_generator, args, options)
+
+    @staticmethod
+    @defer.inlineCallbacks
+    def _call_generator(args, options=None):
         for i, arg in enumerate(args):
             if isinstance(arg, string_types):
                 args[i] = arg.encode(get_filesystem_encoding()) if PY2 else arg
             else:
                 args[i] = str(arg)
 
-        def _call_inline():
+        to_json = "--json-output" in args
+
+        try:
+            if args and args[0] in ("account", "remote"):
+                result = yield PIOCoreRPC._call_subprocess(args, options)
+                defer.returnValue(PIOCoreRPC._process_result(result, to_json))
+            else:
+                result = yield PIOCoreRPC._call_inline(args, options)
+                try:
+                    defer.returnValue(
+                        PIOCoreRPC._process_result(result, to_json))
+                except ValueError:
+                    # fall-back to subprocess method
+                    result = yield PIOCoreRPC._call_subprocess(args, options)
+                    defer.returnValue(
+                        PIOCoreRPC._process_result(result, to_json))
+        except Exception as e:  # pylint: disable=bare-except
+            raise jsonrpc.exceptions.JSONRPCDispatchException(
+                code=4003, message="PIO Core Call Error", data=str(e))
+
+    @staticmethod
+    def _call_inline(args, options):
+        PIOCoreRPC.setup_multithreading_std_streams()
+        cwd = (options or {}).get("cwd") or os.getcwd()
+
+        def _thread_task():
             with fs.cd(cwd):
                 exit_code = __main__.main(["-c"] + args)
             return (PIOCoreRPC.thread_stdout.get_value_and_reset(),
                     PIOCoreRPC.thread_stderr.get_value_and_reset(), exit_code)
 
-        if args and args[0] in ("account", "remote"):
-            d = utils.getProcessOutputAndValue(
-                helpers.get_core_fullpath(),
-                args,
-                path=cwd,
-                env={k: v
-                     for k, v in os.environ.items() if "%" not in k})
-        else:
-            d = threads.deferToThread(_call_inline)
-
-        d.addCallback(PIOCoreRPC._call_callback, "--json-output" in args)
-        d.addErrback(PIOCoreRPC._call_errback)
-        return d
+        return threads.deferToThread(_thread_task)
 
     @staticmethod
-    def _call_callback(result, json_output=False):
+    def _call_subprocess(args, options):
+        cwd = (options or {}).get("cwd") or os.getcwd()
+        return utils.getProcessOutputAndValue(
+            helpers.get_core_fullpath(),
+            args,
+            path=cwd,
+            env={k: v
+                 for k, v in os.environ.items() if "%" not in k})
+
+    @staticmethod
+    def _process_result(result, to_json=False):
         out, err, code = result
         text = ("%s\n\n%s" % (out, err)).strip()
         if code != 0:
             raise Exception(text)
-        if not json_output:
+        if not to_json:
             return text
         try:
             return json.loads(out)
@@ -129,14 +160,3 @@ class PIOCoreRPC(object):
                 except ValueError:
                     pass
             raise e
-
-    @staticmethod
-    def _call_errback(failure):
-        raise jsonrpc.exceptions.JSONRPCDispatchException(
-            code=4003,
-            message="PIO Core Call Error",
-            data=failure.getErrorMessage())
-
-    @staticmethod
-    def version():
-        return __version__