diff --git a/phpBB/phpbb/textformatter/s9e/factory.php b/phpBB/phpbb/textformatter/s9e/factory.php
index 4504a329af..bad9190973 100644
--- a/phpBB/phpbb/textformatter/s9e/factory.php
+++ b/phpBB/phpbb/textformatter/s9e/factory.php
@@ -180,6 +180,10 @@ class factory implements \phpbb\textformatter\cache_interface
 		// Don't automatically ignore text in places where text is not allowed
 		$configurator->rulesGenerator->remove('IgnoreTextIfDisallowed');
 
+		// Don't remove comments and instead convert them to xsl:comment elements
+		$configurator->templateNormalizer->remove('RemoveComments');
+		$configurator->templateNormalizer->add('TransposeComments');
+
 		// Set the rendering engine and configure it to save to the cache dir
 		$configurator->rendering->engine = 'PHP';
 		$configurator->rendering->engine->cacheDir = $this->cache_dir;
diff --git a/tests/text_formatter/s9e/factory_test.php b/tests/text_formatter/s9e/factory_test.php
index 9f7551ef14..8382097544 100644
--- a/tests/text_formatter/s9e/factory_test.php
+++ b/tests/text_formatter/s9e/factory_test.php
@@ -178,6 +178,21 @@ class phpbb_textformatter_s9e_factory_test extends phpbb_database_test_case
 		$this->assertSame($expected, $renderer->render($parser->parse($original)));
 	}
 
+	/**
+	* @testdox Preserves comments in custom BBCodes
+	*/
+	public function test_preserve_comments()
+	{
+		$fixture = __DIR__ . '/fixtures/preserve_comments.xml';
+		$container = $this->get_test_case_helpers()->set_s9e_services(null, $fixture);
+		$parser = $container->get('text_formatter.parser');
+		$renderer = $container->get('text_formatter.renderer');
+
+		$original = '[X]';
+		$expected = '<!-- comment -->';
+		$this->assertSame($expected, $renderer->render($parser->parse($original)));
+	}
+
 	/**
 	* @testdox Accepts unsafe custom BBCodes
 	*/
diff --git a/tests/text_formatter/s9e/fixtures/preserve_comments.xml b/tests/text_formatter/s9e/fixtures/preserve_comments.xml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..f81d366aad
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/text_formatter/s9e/fixtures/preserve_comments.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
+<dataset>
+	<table name="phpbb_bbcodes">
+		<column>bbcode_id</column>
+		<column>bbcode_tag</column>
+		<column>bbcode_helpline</column>
+		<column>display_on_posting</column>
+		<column>bbcode_match</column>
+		<column>bbcode_tpl</column>
+		<column>first_pass_match</column>
+		<column>first_pass_replace</column>
+		<column>second_pass_match</column>
+		<column>second_pass_replace</column>
+
+		<row>
+			<value>13</value>
+			<value>X</value>
+			<value></value>
+			<value>1</value>
+			<value>[X][/X]</value>
+			<value><![CDATA[<!-- comment -->]]></value>
+			<value><![CDATA[!\[x\]\[/x\]!i]]></value>
+			<value><![CDATA[[x:$uid][/x:$uid]]]></value>
+			<value><![CDATA[[x:$uid][/x:$uid]]]></value>
+			<value></value>
+		</row>
+	</table>
+</dataset>