diff --git a/qmake/library/qmakebuiltins.cpp b/qmake/library/qmakebuiltins.cpp
index 6f93b655b4..de58469a58 100644
--- a/qmake/library/qmakebuiltins.cpp
+++ b/qmake/library/qmakebuiltins.cpp
@@ -389,11 +389,16 @@ static void addJsonValue(const QJsonValue &value, const QString &keyPrefix, ProV
     }
 }
 
-static QMakeEvaluator::VisitReturn parseJsonInto(const QByteArray &json, const QString &into, ProValueMap *value)
+QMakeEvaluator::VisitReturn QMakeEvaluator::parseJsonInto(const QByteArray &json, const QString &into, ProValueMap *value)
 {
-    QJsonDocument document = QJsonDocument::fromJson(json);
-    if (document.isNull())
+    QJsonParseError error;
+    QJsonDocument document = QJsonDocument::fromJson(json, &error);
+    if (document.isNull()) {
+        if (error.error != QJsonParseError::NoError)
+            evalError(fL1S("Error parsing json at offset %1: %2")
+                      .arg(error.offset).arg(error.errorString()));
         return QMakeEvaluator::ReturnFalse;
+    }
 
     QString currentKey = into + QLatin1Char('.');
 
diff --git a/qmake/library/qmakeevaluator.h b/qmake/library/qmakeevaluator.h
index 7b911e7911..ab13b24645 100644
--- a/qmake/library/qmakeevaluator.h
+++ b/qmake/library/qmakeevaluator.h
@@ -234,6 +234,7 @@ public:
 
     bool getMemberArgs(const ProKey &name, int srclen, const ProStringList &args,
                        int *start, int *end);
+    VisitReturn parseJsonInto(const QByteArray &json, const QString &into, ProValueMap *value);
 
     VisitReturn writeFile(const QString &ctx, const QString &fn, QIODevice::OpenMode mode,
                           bool exe, const QString &contents);
diff --git a/tests/auto/tools/qmakelib/evaltest.cpp b/tests/auto/tools/qmakelib/evaltest.cpp
index 4cefa906d3..d4959a4f63 100644
--- a/tests/auto/tools/qmakelib/evaltest.cpp
+++ b/tests/auto/tools/qmakelib/evaltest.cpp
@@ -2162,7 +2162,7 @@ void tst_qmakelib::addTestFunctions(const QString &qindir)
             << "jsontext = not good\n"
                "parseJson(jsontext, json): OK = 1"
             << "OK = UNDEF"
-            << ""
+            << "##:2: Error parsing json at offset 1: illegal value"
             << true;
 
     QTest::newRow("parseJson(): bad number of arguments")