diff --git a/src/corelib/text/qbytearray.cpp b/src/corelib/text/qbytearray.cpp
index a1ad120520f..163fd9cb5f3 100644
--- a/src/corelib/text/qbytearray.cpp
+++ b/src/corelib/text/qbytearray.cpp
@@ -3229,8 +3229,10 @@ QDataStream &operator>>(QDataStream &in, QByteArray &ba)
     ba.clear();
     quint32 len;
     in >> len;
-    if (len == 0xffffffff)
+    if (len == 0xffffffff) { // null byte-array
+        ba = QByteArray();
         return in;
+    }
 
     const quint32 Step = 1024 * 1024;
     quint32 allocated = 0;
diff --git a/src/corelib/text/qstring.cpp b/src/corelib/text/qstring.cpp
index b16680055d0..9d44e7a478a 100644
--- a/src/corelib/text/qstring.cpp
+++ b/src/corelib/text/qstring.cpp
@@ -10432,7 +10432,7 @@ QDataStream &operator>>(QDataStream &in, QString &str)
         quint32 bytes = 0;
         in >> bytes;                                  // read size of string
         if (bytes == 0xffffffff) {                    // null string
-            str.clear();
+            str = QString();
         } else if (bytes > 0) {                       // not empty
             if (bytes & 0x1) {
                 str.clear();