diff --git a/src/shared/proparser/qmakebuiltins.cpp b/src/shared/proparser/qmakebuiltins.cpp
index 8a8bc70acdf..734ef0165a0 100644
--- a/src/shared/proparser/qmakebuiltins.cpp
+++ b/src/shared/proparser/qmakebuiltins.cpp
@@ -390,11 +390,16 @@ static void addJsonValue(const QJsonValue &value, const QString &keyPrefix, ProV
     }
 }
 
-static QMakeEvaluator::VisitReturn parseJsonInto(const QByteArray &json, const QString &into, ProValueMap *value)
+QMakeEvaluator::VisitReturn QMakeEvaluator::parseJsonInto(const QByteArray &json, const QString &into, ProValueMap *value)
 {
-    QJsonDocument document = QJsonDocument::fromJson(json);
-    if (document.isNull())
+    QJsonParseError error;
+    QJsonDocument document = QJsonDocument::fromJson(json, &error);
+    if (document.isNull()) {
+        if (error.error != QJsonParseError::NoError)
+            evalError(fL1S("Error parsing json at offset %1: %2")
+                      .arg(error.offset).arg(error.errorString()));
         return QMakeEvaluator::ReturnFalse;
+    }
 
     QString currentKey = into + QLatin1Char('.');
 
diff --git a/src/shared/proparser/qmakeevaluator.h b/src/shared/proparser/qmakeevaluator.h
index 3f24414f2c3..e9cff77c67e 100644
--- a/src/shared/proparser/qmakeevaluator.h
+++ b/src/shared/proparser/qmakeevaluator.h
@@ -229,6 +229,7 @@ public:
 
     bool getMemberArgs(const ProKey &name, int srclen, const ProStringList &args,
                        int *start, int *end);
+    VisitReturn parseJsonInto(const QByteArray &json, const QString &into, ProValueMap *value);
 
     VisitReturn writeFile(const QString &ctx, const QString &fn, QIODevice::OpenMode mode,
                           bool exe, const QString &contents);