diff --git a/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/expressions/datetimeExpressions.scala b/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/expressions/datetimeExpressions.scala
index a9155e8daf10..6fb3712dd6de 100644
--- a/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/expressions/datetimeExpressions.scala
+++ b/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/expressions/datetimeExpressions.scala
@@ -1235,11 +1235,13 @@ object TryToTimestampExpressionBuilder extends ExpressionBuilder {
   override def build(funcName: String, expressions: Seq[Expression]): Expression = {
     val numArgs = expressions.length
     if (numArgs == 1 || numArgs == 2) {
-      ParseToTimestamp(
+      // The expression ParseToTimestamp will throw an SparkUpgradeException if the input is invalid
+      // even when failOnError is false. We need to catch the exception and return null.
+      TryEval(ParseToTimestamp(
         expressions.head,
         expressions.drop(1).lastOption,
         SQLConf.get.timestampType,
-        failOnError = false)
+        failOnError = false))
     } else {
       throw QueryCompilationErrors.wrongNumArgsError(funcName, Seq(1, 2), numArgs)
     }
diff --git a/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/DateFunctionsSuite.scala b/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/DateFunctionsSuite.scala
index b261ecfb0cee..07445c8910d0 100644
--- a/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/DateFunctionsSuite.scala
+++ b/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/DateFunctionsSuite.scala
@@ -1392,4 +1392,9 @@ class DateFunctionsSuite extends QueryTest with SharedSparkSession {
     checkAnswer(df.selectExpr("try_to_timestamp(a)"), Seq(Row(ts)))
     checkAnswer(df.select(try_to_timestamp(col("a"))), Seq(Row(ts)))
   }
+
+  test("try_to_timestamp: return null on SparkUpgradeException") {
+    val df = spark.sql("SELECT try_to_timestamp('2016-12-1', 'yyyy-MM-dd')")
+    checkAnswer(df, Seq(Row(null)))
+  }
 }