diff --git a/core/namecmp.h b/core/namecmp.h
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..f0781bb50
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/namecmp.h
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+// SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
+#ifndef NAMECMP_H
+#define NAMECMP_H
+
+#ifdef __cplusplus
+
+#include <QXmlStreamReader>
+
+// this is annoying Qt5 / Qt6 incompatibility where we can't compare against string literals anymore
+static inline int nameCmp(QXmlStreamReader &r, const char * cs)
+{
+	return r.name().compare(QLatin1String(cs));
+}
+
+#endif
+#endif // NAMECMP_H
diff --git a/core/parse-gpx.cpp b/core/parse-gpx.cpp
index 11e332091..67feae3c5 100644
--- a/core/parse-gpx.cpp
+++ b/core/parse-gpx.cpp
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 // SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
 #include "core/parse-gpx.h"
 #include "core/subsurface-time.h"
+#include "core/namecmp.h"
 #include <QFile>
 #include <QXmlStreamReader>
 
@@ -43,7 +44,7 @@ int getCoordsFromGPXFile(struct dive_coords *coords, QString fileName)
 	while (!gpxReader.atEnd()) {
 		gpxReader.readNext();
 		if (gpxReader.isStartElement()) {
-			if (gpxReader.name() == "trkpt") {
+			if (nameCmp(gpxReader, "trkpt") == 0) {
 				trkpt_found = true;
 				line++;
 				foreach (const QXmlStreamAttribute &attr, gpxReader.attributes()) {
@@ -53,7 +54,7 @@ int getCoordsFromGPXFile(struct dive_coords *coords, QString fileName)
 						lon = attr.value().toString().toDouble();
 				}
 			}
-			if (gpxReader.name() == "time" && trkpt_found) {  // Ignore the <time> element in the GPX file header
+			if (nameCmp(gpxReader, "time") == 0 && trkpt_found) {  // Ignore the <time> element in the GPX file header
 				QString dateTimeString = gpxReader.readElementText();
 				bool ok;
 				tm1.tm_year = dateTimeString.left(4).toInt(&ok, 10);  // Extract the date/time components:
diff --git a/desktop-widgets/subsurfacewebservices.cpp b/desktop-widgets/subsurfacewebservices.cpp
index b66202dbb..80d12c324 100644
--- a/desktop-widgets/subsurfacewebservices.cpp
+++ b/desktop-widgets/subsurfacewebservices.cpp
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 // SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
 #include "desktop-widgets/subsurfacewebservices.h"
 #include "core/qthelper.h"
+#include "core/namecmp.h"
 #include "core/webservice.h"
 #include "core/settings/qPrefCloudStorage.h"
 #include "desktop-widgets/mainwindow.h"
@@ -157,7 +158,7 @@ static DiveListResult parseDiveLogsDeDiveList(const QByteArray &xmlData)
 	DiveListResult result;
 	result.idCount = 0;
 
-	if (reader.readNextStartElement() && reader.name() != "DiveDateReader") {
+	if (reader.readNextStartElement() && nameCmp(reader, "DiveDateReader") != 0) {
 		result.errorCondition = invalidXmlError;
 		result.errorDetails =
 			gettextFromC::tr("Expected XML tag 'DiveDateReader', got instead '%1")
@@ -166,8 +167,8 @@ static DiveListResult parseDiveLogsDeDiveList(const QByteArray &xmlData)
 	}
 
 	while (reader.readNextStartElement()) {
-		if (reader.name() != "DiveDates") {
-			if (reader.name() == "Login") {
+		if (nameCmp(reader, "DiveDates") != 0) {
+			if (nameCmp(reader, "Login") == 0) {
 				QString status = reader.readElementText();
 				// qDebug() << "Login status:" << status;
 
@@ -185,11 +186,11 @@ static DiveListResult parseDiveLogsDeDiveList(const QByteArray &xmlData)
 		// process <DiveDates>
 		seenDiveDates = true;
 		while (reader.readNextStartElement()) {
-			if (reader.name() != "date") {
+			if (nameCmp(reader, "date") != 0) {
 				// qDebug() << "Skipping" << reader.name();
 				continue;
 			}
-			QStringRef id = reader.attributes().value("divelogsId");
+			auto id = reader.attributes().value("divelogsId");
 			// qDebug() << "Found" << reader.name() << "with id =" << id;
 			if (!id.isEmpty()) {
 				result.idList += id.toLatin1();