diff --git a/sources/qetproject.cpp b/sources/qetproject.cpp
index a9aec4e87..df45c2c08 100644
--- a/sources/qetproject.cpp
+++ b/sources/qetproject.cpp
@@ -386,7 +386,13 @@ QETProject::ProjectState QETProject::openFile(QFile *file)
 	// QET::findInDomElement()), so the extra whitespace-only text nodes
 	// this keeps around are inert everywhere but the two elements that
 	// call .text() on themselves -- which is exactly where the bug was.
+	// The option exists since Qt 6.5; older Qt always drops such nodes,
+	// so there an all-whitespace value still reloads as "".
+#if QT_VERSION >= QT_VERSION_CHECK(6, 5, 0)
 	if (!xml_project.setContent(content, QDomDocument::ParseOption::PreserveSpacingOnlyNodes))
+#else
+	if (!xml_project.setContent(content))
+#endif
 	{
 		if(opened_here) {
 			file->close();