diff --git a/src/lib/io/kurlmimedata.cpp b/src/lib/io/kurlmimedata.cpp
--- a/src/lib/io/kurlmimedata.cpp
+++ b/src/lib/io/kurlmimedata.cpp
@@ -74,8 +74,11 @@
     QByteArray ba = mimeData->data(QString::fromLatin1(firstMimeType));
     if (ba.isEmpty()) {
         ba = mimeData->data(QString::fromLatin1(secondMimeType));
-    }
-    if (!ba.isEmpty()) {
+        // If extracting uris from test/uri-list, use the much faster QMimeData method urls()
+        if (!ba.isEmpty()) {
+            uris = mimeData->urls();
+        }
+    } else {
         // Code from qmimedata.cpp
         QList<QByteArray> urls = ba.split('\n');
         for (int i = 0; i < urls.size(); ++i) {
@@ -85,6 +88,7 @@
             }
         }
     }
+
     if (metaData) {
         const QByteArray metaDataPayload = mimeData->data(QStringLiteral("application/x-kio-metadata"));
         if (!metaDataPayload.isEmpty()) {