diff --git a/taglib/mpeg/id3v2/frames/tableofcontentsframe.cpp b/taglib/mpeg/id3v2/frames/tableofcontentsframe.cpp
index f45792db..4630c6f9 100644
--- a/taglib/mpeg/id3v2/frames/tableofcontentsframe.cpp
+++ b/taglib/mpeg/id3v2/frames/tableofcontentsframe.cpp
@@ -50,30 +50,6 @@ public:
   FrameList embeddedFrameList;
 };
 
-namespace {
-
-  // These functions are needed to try to aim for backward compatibility with
-  // an API that previously (unreasonably) required null bytes to be appended
-  // at the end of identifiers explicitly by the API user.
-
-  // BIC: remove these
-
-  ByteVector &strip(ByteVector &b)
-  {
-    if(b.endsWith('\0'))
-      b.resize(b.size() - 1);
-    return b;
-  }
-
-  ByteVectorList &strip(ByteVectorList &l)
-  {
-    for(auto &v : l) {
-      strip(v);
-    }
-    return l;
-  }
-}  // namespace
-
 ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
 // public methods
 ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
@@ -93,7 +69,6 @@ TableOfContentsFrame::TableOfContentsFrame(const ByteVector &elementID,
   d(std::make_unique<TableOfContentsFramePrivate>())
 {
   d->elementID = elementID;
-  strip(d->elementID);
   d->childElements = children;
 
   for(const auto &frame : embeddedFrames)
@@ -130,7 +105,6 @@ ByteVectorList TableOfContentsFrame::childElements() const
 void TableOfContentsFrame::setElementID(const ByteVector &eID)
 {
   d->elementID = eID;
-  strip(d->elementID);
 }
 
 void TableOfContentsFrame::setIsTopLevel(const bool &t)
@@ -146,13 +120,11 @@ void TableOfContentsFrame::setIsOrdered(const bool &o)
 void TableOfContentsFrame::setChildElements(const ByteVectorList &l)
 {
   d->childElements = l;
-  strip(d->childElements);
 }
 
 void TableOfContentsFrame::addChildElement(const ByteVector &cE)
 {
   d->childElements.append(cE);
-  strip(d->childElements);
 }
 
 void TableOfContentsFrame::removeChildElement(const ByteVector &cE)
diff --git a/taglib/mpeg/id3v2/frames/tableofcontentsframe.h b/taglib/mpeg/id3v2/frames/tableofcontentsframe.h
index 5ed2b86f..9d895e54 100644
--- a/taglib/mpeg/id3v2/frames/tableofcontentsframe.h
+++ b/taglib/mpeg/id3v2/frames/tableofcontentsframe.h
@@ -70,8 +70,8 @@ namespace TagLib {
       TableOfContentsFrame &operator=(const TableOfContentsFrame &) = delete;
 
       /*!
-       * Returns the elementID of the frame. Element ID
-       * is a null terminated string, however it's not human-readable.
+       * Returns the elementID of the frame.
+       * Element ID is not intended to be human readable.
        *
        * \see setElementID()
        */
@@ -109,8 +109,7 @@ namespace TagLib {
       ByteVectorList childElements() const;
 
       /*!
-       * Sets the elementID of the frame to \a eID. If \a eID isn't
-       * null terminated, a null char is appended automatically.
+       * Sets the elementID of the frame to \a eID.
        *
        * \see elementID()
        */
diff --git a/tests/test_id3v2.cpp b/tests/test_id3v2.cpp
index 7b72e1fa..d16748f1 100644
--- a/tests/test_id3v2.cpp
+++ b/tests/test_id3v2.cpp
@@ -1533,11 +1533,11 @@ public:
   {
     ID3v2::Header header;
     ID3v2::TableOfContentsFrame f(&header, "CTOC");
-    f.setElementID(ByteVector("\x54\x00", 2));
+    f.setElementID("T");
     f.setIsTopLevel(false);
     f.setIsOrdered(true);
-    f.addChildElement(ByteVector("\x43\x00", 2));
-    f.addChildElement(ByteVector("\x44\x00", 2));
+    f.addChildElement("C");
+    f.addChildElement("D");
     auto eF = new ID3v2::TextIdentificationFrame("TIT2");
     eF->setText("TC1");
     f.addEmbeddedFrame(eF);