diff --git a/src/corelib/mimetypes/qmimemagicrule.cpp b/src/corelib/mimetypes/qmimemagicrule.cpp
index e83a38d82f..e81a0d62a0 100644
--- a/src/corelib/mimetypes/qmimemagicrule.cpp
+++ b/src/corelib/mimetypes/qmimemagicrule.cpp
@@ -215,6 +215,8 @@ static inline QByteArray makePattern(const QByteArray &value)
                 *data++ = '\n';
             } else if (*p == 'r') {
                 *data++ = '\r';
+            } else if (*p == 't') {
+                *data++ = '\t';
             } else { // escaped
                 *data++ = *p;
             }
diff --git a/tests/auto/corelib/mimetypes/qmimedatabase/tst_qmimedatabase.cpp b/tests/auto/corelib/mimetypes/qmimedatabase/tst_qmimedatabase.cpp
index 1513a75148..b449a78200 100644
--- a/tests/auto/corelib/mimetypes/qmimedatabase/tst_qmimedatabase.cpp
+++ b/tests/auto/corelib/mimetypes/qmimedatabase/tst_qmimedatabase.cpp
@@ -460,6 +460,7 @@ void tst_QMimeDatabase::mimeTypeForData_data()
     QTest::newRow("tnef data, needs smi >= 0.20") << QByteArray("\x78\x9f\x3e\x22") << "application/vnd.ms-tnef";
     QTest::newRow("PDF magic") << QByteArray("%PDF-") << "application/pdf";
     QTest::newRow("PHP, High-priority rule") << QByteArray("<?php") << "application/x-php";
+    QTest::newRow("diff\\t") << QByteArray("diff\t") << "text/x-patch";
     QTest::newRow("unknown") << QByteArray("\001abc?}") << "application/octet-stream";
 }