diff --git a/subprojects/gst-plugins-base/gst/subparse/gstsubparseelement.c b/subprojects/gst-plugins-base/gst/subparse/gstsubparseelement.c
index 9c03ee10b8..97fb83d8ad 100644
--- a/subprojects/gst-plugins-base/gst/subparse/gstsubparseelement.c
+++ b/subprojects/gst-plugins-base/gst/subparse/gstsubparseelement.c
@@ -291,25 +291,36 @@ gst_sub_parse_type_find (GstTypeFind * tf, gpointer private)
 {
   GstSubParseFormat format;
   const guint8 *data;
+  guint64 data_len = 128, checked_len;
   GstCaps *caps;
   gchar *str;
   gchar *encoding = NULL;
   const gchar *end;
 
-  if (!(data = gst_type_find_peek (tf, 0, 129)))
-    return;
+  /* use the first 128 bytes for detection, if available */
+  data = gst_type_find_peek (tf, 0, data_len);
+  if (!data) {
+    /* less that 128 bytes are available, try to detect using whatever is available */
+    data_len = gst_type_find_get_length (tf);
+    if (data_len == 0)
+      return;
+
+    data = gst_type_find_peek (tf, 0, data_len);
+    if (!data)
+      return;
+  }
 
   /* make sure string passed to _autodetect() is NUL-terminated */
-  str = g_malloc0 (129);
-  memcpy (str, data, 128);
+  str = g_malloc0 (data_len + 1);
+  memcpy (str, data, data_len);
 
-  if ((encoding = gst_sub_parse_detect_encoding (str, 128)) != NULL) {
+  if ((encoding = gst_sub_parse_detect_encoding (str, data_len)) != NULL) {
     gchar *converted_str;
     GError *err = NULL;
     gsize tmp;
 
     converted_str =
-        gst_sub_parse_gst_convert_to_utf8 (str, 128, encoding, &tmp, &err);
+        gst_sub_parse_gst_convert_to_utf8 (str, data_len, encoding, &tmp, &err);
     if (converted_str == NULL) {
       GST_DEBUG ("Encoding '%s' detected but conversion failed: %s", encoding,
           err->message);
@@ -321,9 +332,15 @@ gst_sub_parse_type_find (GstTypeFind * tf, gpointer private)
     g_free (encoding);
   }
 
-  /* Check if at least the first 120 chars are valid UTF8,
-   * otherwise convert as always */
-  if (!g_utf8_validate (str, 128, &end) && (end - str) < 120) {
+  /* Check if content is valid UTF-8 but allow for the 8 last bytes to not be in
+   * case of incomplete unicode sequence. */
+  if (data_len > 8)
+    checked_len = data_len - 8;
+  else
+    checked_len = data_len;
+
+  if (!g_utf8_validate (str, data_len, &end) && (end - str) < checked_len) {
+    /* Invalid UTF-8, try converting */
     gchar *converted_str;
     gsize tmp;
     const gchar *enc;
@@ -337,7 +354,7 @@ gst_sub_parse_type_find (GstTypeFind * tf, gpointer private)
       }
     }
     converted_str =
-        gst_sub_parse_gst_convert_to_utf8 (str, 128, enc, &tmp, NULL);
+        gst_sub_parse_gst_convert_to_utf8 (str, data_len, enc, &tmp, NULL);
     if (converted_str != NULL) {
       g_free (str);
       str = converted_str;
diff --git a/subprojects/gst-plugins-base/tests/check/gst/typefindfunctions.c b/subprojects/gst-plugins-base/tests/check/gst/typefindfunctions.c
index 9c47bb4436..f5539ad2ab 100644
--- a/subprojects/gst-plugins-base/tests/check/gst/typefindfunctions.c
+++ b/subprojects/gst-plugins-base/tests/check/gst/typefindfunctions.c
@@ -512,11 +512,25 @@ GST_START_TEST (test_subparse)
 {
   const gchar *type;
   GstCaps *caps = NULL;
+  GstTypeFindProbability prob;
+  guint8 one_byte[] = {
+    'A',
+  };
 
   caps = typefind_test_file ("subrip.srt");
   type = gst_structure_get_name (gst_caps_get_structure (caps, 0));
   fail_unless_equals_string (type, "application/x-subtitle");
   gst_caps_unref (caps);
+
+  caps = typefind_test_file ("subrip-short.srt");
+  type = gst_structure_get_name (gst_caps_get_structure (caps, 0));
+  fail_unless_equals_string (type, "application/x-subtitle");
+  gst_caps_unref (caps);
+
+  /* check that one byte content does not crash subparse typefinder */
+  prob = 0;
+  caps = typefind_data (one_byte, sizeof (one_byte), &prob);
+  fail_unless (caps == NULL);
 }
 
 GST_END_TEST;
diff --git a/subprojects/gst-plugins-base/tests/files/subrip-short.srt b/subprojects/gst-plugins-base/tests/files/subrip-short.srt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..42ee5ffba3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/subprojects/gst-plugins-base/tests/files/subrip-short.srt
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+1
+00:00:01,000 --> 00:00:02,000
+One