diff --git a/src/kitemviews/kfileitemmodel.cpp b/src/kitemviews/kfileitemmodel.cpp
--- a/src/kitemviews/kfileitemmodel.cpp
+++ b/src/kitemviews/kfileitemmodel.cpp
@@ -1735,7 +1735,7 @@
         // Sorting by other roles is quite fast. Use only one thread to prevent
         // problems caused by non-reentrant comparison functions, see
         // https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=312679
-        mergeSort(begin, end, lambdaLessThan);
+        std::stable_sort(begin, end, lambdaLessThan);
     }
 }
 
diff --git a/src/kitemviews/private/kfileitemmodelsortalgorithm.h b/src/kitemviews/private/kfileitemmodelsortalgorithm.h
--- a/src/kitemviews/private/kfileitemmodelsortalgorithm.h
+++ b/src/kitemviews/private/kfileitemmodelsortalgorithm.h
@@ -26,33 +26,6 @@
 
 #include <algorithm>
 
-/**
- * Sorts the items using the merge sort algorithm is used to assure a
- * worst-case of O(n * log(n)) and to keep the number of comparisons low.
- *
- * The implementation is based on qStableSortHelper() from qalgorithms.h
- * Copyright (C) 2011 Nokia Corporation and/or its subsidiary(-ies).
- */
-
-template <typename RandomAccessIterator, typename LessThan>
-static void mergeSort(RandomAccessIterator begin,
-                      RandomAccessIterator end,
-                      const LessThan& lessThan)
-{
-    // The implementation is based on qStableSortHelper() from qalgorithms.h
-    // Copyright (C) 2011 Nokia Corporation and/or its subsidiary(-ies).
-
-    const int span = end - begin;
-    if (span < 2) {
-        return;
-    }
-
-    const RandomAccessIterator middle = begin + span / 2;
-    mergeSort(begin, middle, lessThan);
-    mergeSort(middle, end, lessThan);
-    merge(begin, middle, end, lessThan);
-}
-
 /**
  * Uses up to \a numberOfThreads threads to sort the items between
  * \a begin and \a end. Only item ranges longer than
@@ -82,7 +55,7 @@
 
         merge(begin, middle, end, lessThan);
     } else {
-        mergeSort(begin, end, lessThan);
+        std::stable_sort(begin, end, lessThan);
     }
 }
 
diff --git a/src/tests/dolphinsortingbenchmark.cpp b/src/tests/dolphinsortingbenchmark.cpp
--- a/src/tests/dolphinsortingbenchmark.cpp
+++ b/src/tests/dolphinsortingbenchmark.cpp
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@
     std::vector<int> v(1000);
     std::generate(v.begin(), v.end(), std::rand); // rand isn't a great random number generator, but should be fine for the benchmark
     QBENCHMARK {
-        mergeSort(v.begin(), v.end(), [](int a, int b){return a < b;});
+        std::stable_sort(v.begin(), v.end(), [](int a, int b){return a < b;});
     }
     qDebug() << std::is_sorted(v.begin(), v.end()); // this is intended as an optimization barrier
 }
@@ -65,7 +65,7 @@
 {
     QFETCH(QStringList, strings);
     QBENCHMARK {
-        mergeSort(strings.begin(), strings.end(), std::less_equal<QString>{});
+        std::stable_sort(strings.begin(), strings.end(), std::less_equal<QString>{});
     }
     QVERIFY(std::is_sorted(strings.begin(), strings.end()));
 }