diff --git a/Data/ByteString/Internal.hs b/Data/ByteString/Internal.hs
index 5fc8222a7..221ffa598 100644
--- a/Data/ByteString/Internal.hs
+++ b/Data/ByteString/Internal.hs
@@ -131,7 +131,7 @@ import Data.Data                (Data(..), mkNoRepType)
 
 import GHC.Base                 (nullAddr#,realWorld#,unsafeChr)
 import GHC.Exts                 (IsList(..))
-import GHC.CString              (unpackCString#)
+import GHC.CString              (unpackCString#, unpackCStringUtf8#)
 import GHC.Prim                 (Addr#)
 
 #define TIMES_INT_2_AVAILABLE MIN_VERSION_ghc_prim(0,7,0)
@@ -278,7 +278,25 @@ instance IsList ByteString where
 -- e.g. "枯朶に烏のとまりけり秋の暮" becomes �6k�nh~�Q��n�
 instance IsString ByteString where
     {-# INLINE fromString #-}
-    fromString = packChars
+    fromString = packCharsWrapper
+
+packCharsWrapper :: String -> ByteString
+packCharsWrapper = packCharsSafe
+{-# NOINLINE packCharsWrapper #-}
+
+{-# RULES
+"ByteString packCharsWrapper/ASCII" forall s .
+  packCharsWrapper (unpackCString# s) = packChars (unpackCString# s)
+"ByteString packCharsWrapper/Unicode" forall s .
+  packCharsWrapper (unpackCStringUtf8# s) = packCharsSafe (unpackCStringUtf8# s)
+"ByteString packCharsWrapper/naked" [0]
+  packCharsWrapper = error "instance IsString StrictByteString can be applied only to statically-known strings"
+#-}
+
+packCharsSafe :: String -> ByteString
+packCharsSafe xs
+  | all (< '\256') xs = packChars xs
+  | otherwise = error $ "instance IsString StrictByteString: detected characters outside of Latin1 range in " ++ xs
 
 instance Data ByteString where
   gfoldl f z txt = z packBytes `f` unpackBytes txt
diff --git a/Data/ByteString/Lazy/Internal.hs b/Data/ByteString/Lazy/Internal.hs
index 63dc3f670..3f8d3ec08 100644
--- a/Data/ByteString/Lazy/Internal.hs
+++ b/Data/ByteString/Lazy/Internal.hs
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 {-# LANGUAGE BangPatterns #-}
 {-# LANGUAGE DeriveDataTypeable #-}
 {-# LANGUAGE DeriveLift #-}
+{-# LANGUAGE MagicHash #-}
 {-# LANGUAGE TypeFamilies #-}
 {-# LANGUAGE Unsafe #-}
 {-# OPTIONS_HADDOCK not-home #-}
@@ -68,6 +69,7 @@ import Data.String      (IsString(..))
 import Data.Typeable            (Typeable)
 import Data.Data                (Data(..), mkNoRepType)
 
+import GHC.CString              (unpackCString#, unpackCStringUtf8#)
 import GHC.Exts                 (IsList(..))
 
 import qualified Language.Haskell.TH.Syntax as TH
@@ -123,7 +125,26 @@ instance IsList ByteString where
 -- | Beware: 'fromString' truncates multi-byte characters to octets.
 -- e.g. "枯朶に烏のとまりけり秋の暮" becomes �6k�nh~�Q��n�
 instance IsString ByteString where
-    fromString = packChars
+    fromString = packCharsWrapper
+
+packCharsWrapper :: String -> ByteString
+packCharsWrapper = packCharsSafe
+{-# NOINLINE packCharsWrapper #-}
+
+{-# RULES
+"ByteString packCharsWrapper/ASCII" forall s .
+  packCharsWrapper (unpackCString# s) = packChars (unpackCString# s)
+"ByteString packCharsWrapper/Unicode" forall s .
+  packCharsWrapper (unpackCStringUtf8# s) = packCharsSafe (unpackCStringUtf8# s)
+"ByteString packCharsWrapper/naked" [0]
+  packCharsWrapper = error "instance IsString LazyByteString can be applied only to statically-known strings"
+#-}
+
+packCharsSafe :: String -> ByteString
+packCharsSafe xs
+  | Prelude.all (< '\256') xs = packChars xs
+  | otherwise = error $ "instance IsString LazyByteString: detected characters outside of Latin1 range in " ++ xs
+
 
 instance Data ByteString where
   gfoldl f z txt = z packBytes `f` unpackBytes txt
diff --git a/Data/ByteString/Short/Internal.hs b/Data/ByteString/Short/Internal.hs
index 5cb3a20aa..7e94cb6a7 100644
--- a/Data/ByteString/Short/Internal.hs
+++ b/Data/ByteString/Short/Internal.hs
@@ -208,6 +208,10 @@ import Foreign.Marshal.Alloc
   ( allocaBytes )
 import Foreign.Storable
   ( pokeByteOff )
+import GHC.CString
+  ( unpackCString#
+  , unpackCStringUtf8#
+  )
 import GHC.Exts
   ( Int(I#), Int#, Ptr(Ptr), Addr#, Char(C#)
   , State#, RealWorld
@@ -264,6 +268,7 @@ import Prelude
   , not
   , snd
   )
+import qualified Prelude
 
 import qualified Data.ByteString.Internal as BS
 
@@ -349,7 +354,25 @@ instance GHC.Exts.IsList ShortByteString where
 -- | Beware: 'fromString' truncates multi-byte characters to octets.
 -- e.g. "枯朶に烏のとまりけり秋の暮" becomes �6k�nh~�Q��n�
 instance IsString ShortByteString where
-    fromString = packChars
+    fromString = packCharsWrapper
+
+packCharsWrapper :: String -> ShortByteString
+packCharsWrapper = packCharsSafe
+{-# NOINLINE packCharsWrapper #-}
+
+{-# RULES
+"ByteString packCharsWrapper/ASCII" forall s .
+  packCharsWrapper (unpackCString# s) = packChars (unpackCString# s)
+"ByteString packCharsWrapper/Unicode" forall s .
+  packCharsWrapper (unpackCStringUtf8# s) = packCharsSafe (unpackCStringUtf8# s)
+"ByteString packCharsWrapper/naked" [0]
+  packCharsWrapper = error "instance IsString ShortByteString can be applied only to statically-known strings"
+#-}
+
+packCharsSafe :: String -> ShortByteString
+packCharsSafe xs
+  | Prelude.all (< '\256') xs = packChars xs
+  | otherwise = error $ "instance IsString ShortByteString: detected characters outside of Latin1 range in " ++ xs
 
 instance Data ShortByteString where
   gfoldl f z txt = z packBytes `f` unpackBytes txt
diff --git a/tests/Properties.hs b/tests/Properties.hs
index 15cb5d724..2f9df9463 100644
--- a/tests/Properties.hs
+++ b/tests/Properties.hs
@@ -567,8 +567,8 @@ prop_short_mappend xs ys =
 prop_short_mconcat xss =
     mconcat xss == Short.unpack (mconcat (map Short.pack xss))
 
-prop_short_fromString s =
-    fromString s == Short.fromShort (fromString s)
+prop_short_fromString xs = expectFailure $
+    length (Short.unpack (fromString xs)) `seq` ()
 
 prop_short_show xs =
     show (Short.pack xs) == show (map P.w2c xs)
diff --git a/tests/Properties/ByteString.hs b/tests/Properties/ByteString.hs
index 757059701..50c685dd3 100644
--- a/tests/Properties/ByteString.hs
+++ b/tests/Properties/ByteString.hs
@@ -596,8 +596,8 @@ tests =
     \n x -> B.indexMaybe x (fromIntegral (n :: Int)) === x B.!? (fromIntegral n)
 
 #ifdef BYTESTRING_CHAR8
-  , testProperty "isString" $
-    \x -> x === fromString (B.unpack x)
+  , testProperty "isString" $ expectFailure $
+    \xs -> length (B.unpack (fromString xs)) `seq` ()
   , testRdInt @Int    "readInt"
   , testRdInt @Int8   "readInt8"
   , testRdInt @Int16  "readInt16"
@@ -651,8 +651,6 @@ tests =
 
 #ifndef BYTESTRING_CHAR8
   -- issue #393
-  , testProperty "fromString non-char8" $
-    \s -> fromString s == B.pack (map (fromIntegral . ord :: Char -> Word8) s)
   , testProperty "fromString literal" $
     fromString "\0\1\2\3\4" == B.pack [0,1,2,3,4]
 #endif