diff --git a/java/core/src/main/java/com/google/protobuf/TextFormat.java b/java/core/src/main/java/com/google/protobuf/TextFormat.java
index 9d28d06c95..d16c7bde16 100644
--- a/java/core/src/main/java/com/google/protobuf/TextFormat.java
+++ b/java/core/src/main/java/com/google/protobuf/TextFormat.java
@@ -1294,20 +1294,11 @@ public final class TextFormat {
       return consumeByteString().toStringUtf8();
     }
 
-    /** If the next token is a string, consume it and return true. Otherwise, return false. */
-    boolean tryConsumeString() {
-      try {
-        consumeString();
-        return true;
-      } catch (ParseException e) {
-        return false;
-      }
-    }
-
     /**
      * If the next token is a string, consume it, unescape it as a {@link ByteString}, and return
      * it. Otherwise, throw a {@link ParseException}.
      */
+    @CanIgnoreReturnValue
     ByteString consumeByteString() throws ParseException {
       List<ByteString> list = new ArrayList<ByteString>();
       consumeByteString(list);
@@ -1317,6 +1308,16 @@ public final class TextFormat {
       return ByteString.copyFrom(list);
     }
 
+    /** If the next token is a string, consume it and return true. Otherwise, return false. */
+    boolean tryConsumeByteString() {
+      try {
+        consumeByteString();
+        return true;
+      } catch (ParseException e) {
+        return false;
+      }
+    }
+
     /**
      * Like {@link #consumeByteString()} but adds each token of the string to the given list. String
      * literals (whether bytes or text) may come in multiple adjacent tokens which are automatically
@@ -2282,11 +2283,8 @@ public final class TextFormat {
 
     /** Skips a field value. */
     private void skipFieldValue(Tokenizer tokenizer) throws ParseException {
-      if (tokenizer.tryConsumeString()) {
-        while (tokenizer.tryConsumeString()) {}
-        return;
-      }
-      if (!tokenizer.tryConsumeIdentifier() // includes enum & boolean
+      if (!tokenizer.tryConsumeByteString()
+          && !tokenizer.tryConsumeIdentifier() // includes enum & boolean
           && !tokenizer.tryConsumeInt64() // includes int32
           && !tokenizer.tryConsumeUInt64() // includes uint32
           && !tokenizer.tryConsumeDouble()
diff --git a/python/google/protobuf/text_format.py b/python/google/protobuf/text_format.py
index e1a5ad5449..7a6ca7df04 100644
--- a/python/google/protobuf/text_format.py
+++ b/python/google/protobuf/text_format.py
@@ -1254,15 +1254,10 @@ class _Parser(object):
     Raises:
       ParseError: In case an invalid field value is found.
     """
-    # String/bytes tokens can come in multiple adjacent string literals.
-    # If we can consume one, consume as many as we can.
-    if tokenizer.TryConsumeByteString():
-      while tokenizer.TryConsumeByteString():
-        pass
-      return
-
-    if (not tokenizer.TryConsumeIdentifier() and
-        not _TryConsumeInt64(tokenizer) and not _TryConsumeUint64(tokenizer) and
+    if (not tokenizer.TryConsumeByteString()and
+        not tokenizer.TryConsumeIdentifier() and
+        not _TryConsumeInt64(tokenizer) and
+        not _TryConsumeUint64(tokenizer) and
         not tokenizer.TryConsumeFloat()):
       raise ParseError('Invalid field value: ' + tokenizer.token)