diff --git a/src/corelib/io/qsettings_mac.cpp b/src/corelib/io/qsettings_mac.cpp
index 29ea995f2d..59f0015b63 100644
--- a/src/corelib/io/qsettings_mac.cpp
+++ b/src/corelib/io/qsettings_mac.cpp
@@ -247,7 +247,15 @@ static QVariant qtValue(CFPropertyListRef cfvalue)
         }
 
         const QString str = QString::fromUtf8(byteArray.constData(), byteArray.size());
-        return QSettingsPrivate::stringToVariant(str);
+        QVariant variant = QSettingsPrivate::stringToVariant(str);
+        if (variant == QVariant(str)) {
+            // We did not find an encoded variant in the string,
+            // so return the raw byte array instead.
+            byteArray.detach();
+            return byteArray;
+        }
+
+        return variant;
     } else if (typeId == CFDictionaryGetTypeID()) {
         CFDictionaryRef cfdict = static_cast<CFDictionaryRef>(cfvalue);
         CFTypeID arrayTypeId = CFArrayGetTypeID();
diff --git a/tests/auto/corelib/io/qsettings/tst_qsettings.cpp b/tests/auto/corelib/io/qsettings/tst_qsettings.cpp
index 6186f5544b..9ae8fcf61f 100644
--- a/tests/auto/corelib/io/qsettings/tst_qsettings.cpp
+++ b/tests/auto/corelib/io/qsettings/tst_qsettings.cpp
@@ -711,6 +711,10 @@ void tst_QSettings::embeddedZeroByte_data()
 
     QTest::newRow("@bytearray\\0") << QVariant(bytes);
     QTest::newRow("@string\\0") << QVariant(QString::fromLatin1(bytes.data(), bytes.size()));
+
+    bytes = QByteArray("@\xdd\x7d", 3);
+    QTest::newRow("@-prefixed data") << QVariant(bytes);
+    QTest::newRow("@-prefixed data as string") << QVariant(QString::fromLatin1(bytes.data(), bytes.size()));
 }
 
 void tst_QSettings::embeddedZeroByte()