diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 2d5e7b9c1..cee343230 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -36,17 +36,18 @@ before_cache:
   - rm -f $HOME/.pre-commit/pre-commit.log
 
 install:
+  # fix TypeError from old version of this
   - pip install -U codecov pytest-cov
   - echo $TRAVIS_PYTHON_VERSION
-  - if [[ $TRAVIS_PYTHON_VERSION == '3.7'* ]]; then pip install -U git+https://github.com/yaml/pyyaml.git; fi
+  - if [[ $TRAVIS_PYTHON_VERSION == '3.7'* ]]; then pip install -U git+https://github.com/yaml/pyyaml.git; else true; fi
   - pip install -U -r requirements.txt
   - pip install -U -r requirements-dev.txt
-  - if [[ $TRAVIS_PYTHON_VERSION != 'pypy'* ]]; then pip install ujson; fi
+  - if [[ $TRAVIS_PYTHON_VERSION != 'pypy'* ]]; then pip install ujson; else true; fi
 
 script:
-  - if [[ $TEST_OFFICIAL != 'true' ]]; then pytest -v -m nocoverage; fi
-  - if [[ $TEST_OFFICIAL != 'true' ]]; then pytest -v -m "not nocoverage" --cov; fi
-  - if [[ $TEST_OFFICIAL == 'true' ]]; then pytest -v tests/test_official.py; fi
+  - if [[ $TEST_OFFICIAL != 'true' ]]; then pytest -v -m nocoverage; else true; fi
+  - if [[ $TEST_OFFICIAL != 'true' ]]; then pytest -v -m "not nocoverage" --cov; else true; fi
+  - if [[ $TEST_OFFICIAL == 'true' ]]; then pytest -v tests/test_official.py; else true; fi
 
 after_success:
   - coverage combine
diff --git a/appveyor.yml b/appveyor.yml
index 237f9516e..0881905db 100644
--- a/appveyor.yml
+++ b/appveyor.yml
@@ -26,6 +26,8 @@ install:
   # Check that we have the expected version and architecture for Python
   - "python --version"
   # We need wheel installed to build wheels
+  # fix TypeError from an old version of this
+  - "pip install attrs==17.4.0"
   - "pip install -U codecov pytest-cov"
   - "pip install -r requirements.txt"
   - "pip install -r requirements-dev.txt"
@@ -33,6 +35,7 @@ install:
 build: off
 
 test_script:
+  - "pytest --version"
   - "pytest -m \"not nocoverage\" --cov --cov-report xml:coverage.xml"
 
 after_test:
diff --git a/requirements-dev.txt b/requirements-dev.txt
index 190df5366..577e6dd53 100644
--- a/requirements-dev.txt
+++ b/requirements-dev.txt
@@ -8,3 +8,4 @@ beautifulsoup4
 pytest==4.2.0
 pytest-timeout
 wheel
+attrs==19.1.0