diff --git a/physfs_unicode.c b/physfs_unicode.c
index d9cc73f..15b6c03 100644
--- a/physfs_unicode.c
+++ b/physfs_unicode.c
@@ -63,12 +63,13 @@ static PHYSFS_uint32 utf8codepoint(const char **_str)
 
     else if (octet < 224)  /* two octets */
     {
+        (*_str)++;  /* advance at least one byte in case of an error */
         octet -= (128+64);
         octet2 = (PHYSFS_uint32) ((PHYSFS_uint8) *(++str));
         if ((octet2 & (128+64)) != 128)  /* Format isn't 10xxxxxx? */
             return UNICODE_BOGUS_CHAR_VALUE;
 
-        *_str += 2;  /* skip to next possible start of codepoint. */
+        *_str += 1;  /* skip to next possible start of codepoint. */
         retval = ((octet << 6) | (octet2 - 128));
         if ((retval >= 0x80) && (retval <= 0x7FF))
             return retval;
@@ -76,6 +77,7 @@ static PHYSFS_uint32 utf8codepoint(const char **_str)
 
     else if (octet < 240)  /* three octets */
     {
+        (*_str)++;  // advance at least one byte in case of an error
         octet -= (128+64+32);
         octet2 = (PHYSFS_uint32) ((PHYSFS_uint8) *(++str));
         if ((octet2 & (128+64)) != 128)  /* Format isn't 10xxxxxx? */
@@ -85,7 +87,7 @@ static PHYSFS_uint32 utf8codepoint(const char **_str)
         if ((octet3 & (128+64)) != 128)  /* Format isn't 10xxxxxx? */
             return UNICODE_BOGUS_CHAR_VALUE;
 
-        *_str += 3;  /* skip to next possible start of codepoint. */
+        *_str += 2;  /* skip to next possible start of codepoint. */
         retval = ( ((octet << 12)) | ((octet2-128) << 6) | ((octet3-128)) );
 
         /* There are seven "UTF-16 surrogates" that are illegal in UTF-8. */
@@ -108,6 +110,7 @@ static PHYSFS_uint32 utf8codepoint(const char **_str)
 
     else if (octet < 248)  /* four octets */
     {
+        (*_str)++;  // advance at least one byte in case of an error
         octet -= (128+64+32+16);
         octet2 = (PHYSFS_uint32) ((PHYSFS_uint8) *(++str));
         if ((octet2 & (128+64)) != 128)  /* Format isn't 10xxxxxx? */
@@ -121,7 +124,7 @@ static PHYSFS_uint32 utf8codepoint(const char **_str)
         if ((octet4 & (128+64)) != 128)  /* Format isn't 10xxxxxx? */
             return UNICODE_BOGUS_CHAR_VALUE;
 
-        *_str += 4;  /* skip to next possible start of codepoint. */
+        *_str += 3;  /* skip to next possible start of codepoint. */
         retval = ( ((octet << 18)) | ((octet2 - 128) << 12) |
                    ((octet3 - 128) << 6) | ((octet4 - 128)) );
         if ((retval >= 0x10000) && (retval <= 0x10FFFF))
@@ -136,6 +139,34 @@ static PHYSFS_uint32 utf8codepoint(const char **_str)
 
     else if (octet < 252)  /* five octets */
     {
+        (*_str)++;  // advance at least one byte in case of an error
+        octet = (PHYSFS_uint32) ((PHYSFS_uint8) *(++str));
+        if ((octet & (128+64)) != 128)  /* Format isn't 10xxxxxx? */
+            return UNICODE_BOGUS_CHAR_VALUE;
+
+        octet = (PHYSFS_uint32) ((PHYSFS_uint8) *(++str));
+        if ((octet & (128+64)) != 128)  /* Format isn't 10xxxxxx? */
+            return UNICODE_BOGUS_CHAR_VALUE;
+
+        octet = (PHYSFS_uint32) ((PHYSFS_uint8) *(++str));
+        if ((octet & (128+64)) != 128)  /* Format isn't 10xxxxxx? */
+            return UNICODE_BOGUS_CHAR_VALUE;
+
+        octet = (PHYSFS_uint32) ((PHYSFS_uint8) *(++str));
+        if ((octet & (128+64)) != 128)  /* Format isn't 10xxxxxx? */
+            return UNICODE_BOGUS_CHAR_VALUE;
+
+        *_str += 4;  /* skip to next possible start of codepoint. */
+        return UNICODE_BOGUS_CHAR_VALUE;
+    } /* else if */
+
+    else  /* six octets */
+    {
+        (*_str)++;  // advance at least one byte in case of an error
+        octet = (PHYSFS_uint32) ((PHYSFS_uint8) *(++str));
+        if ((octet & (128+64)) != 128)  /* Format isn't 10xxxxxx? */
+            return UNICODE_BOGUS_CHAR_VALUE;
+
         octet = (PHYSFS_uint32) ((PHYSFS_uint8) *(++str));
         if ((octet & (128+64)) != 128)  /* Format isn't 10xxxxxx? */
             return UNICODE_BOGUS_CHAR_VALUE;
@@ -156,32 +187,6 @@ static PHYSFS_uint32 utf8codepoint(const char **_str)
         return UNICODE_BOGUS_CHAR_VALUE;
     } /* else if */
 
-    else  /* six octets */
-    {
-        octet = (PHYSFS_uint32) ((PHYSFS_uint8) *(++str));
-        if ((octet & (128+64)) != 128)  /* Format isn't 10xxxxxx? */
-            return UNICODE_BOGUS_CHAR_VALUE;
-
-        octet = (PHYSFS_uint32) ((PHYSFS_uint8) *(++str));
-        if ((octet & (128+64)) != 128)  /* Format isn't 10xxxxxx? */
-            return UNICODE_BOGUS_CHAR_VALUE;
-
-        octet = (PHYSFS_uint32) ((PHYSFS_uint8) *(++str));
-        if ((octet & (128+64)) != 128)  /* Format isn't 10xxxxxx? */
-            return UNICODE_BOGUS_CHAR_VALUE;
-
-        octet = (PHYSFS_uint32) ((PHYSFS_uint8) *(++str));
-        if ((octet & (128+64)) != 128)  /* Format isn't 10xxxxxx? */
-            return UNICODE_BOGUS_CHAR_VALUE;
-
-        octet = (PHYSFS_uint32) ((PHYSFS_uint8) *(++str));
-        if ((octet & (128+64)) != 128)  /* Format isn't 10xxxxxx? */
-            return UNICODE_BOGUS_CHAR_VALUE;
-
-        *_str += 6;  /* skip to next possible start of codepoint. */
-        return UNICODE_BOGUS_CHAR_VALUE;
-    } /* else if */
-
     return UNICODE_BOGUS_CHAR_VALUE;
 } /* utf8codepoint */