diff --git a/src/HtmlUtils.js b/src/HtmlUtils.js
index ccc7c1a630..2b0fd686c0 100644
--- a/src/HtmlUtils.js
+++ b/src/HtmlUtils.js
@@ -393,7 +393,6 @@ export function bodyToHtml(content, highlights, opts) {
         }
         safeBody = sanitizeHtml(body, sanitizeHtmlParams);
         safeBody = unicodeToImage(safeBody);
-        if (isHtml) safeBody = addCodeCopyButton(safeBody);
     }
     finally {
         delete sanitizeHtmlParams.textFilter;
@@ -412,23 +411,6 @@ export function bodyToHtml(content, highlights, opts) {
     return <span className={className} dangerouslySetInnerHTML={{ __html: safeBody }} dir="auto" />;
 }
 
-function addCodeCopyButton(safeBody) {
-    // Adds 'copy' buttons to pre blocks
-    // Note that this only manipulates the markup to add the buttons:
-    // we need to add the event handlers once the nodes are in the DOM
-    // since we can't save functions in the markup.
-    // This is done in TextualBody
-    const el = document.createElement("div");
-    el.innerHTML = safeBody;
-    const codeBlocks = Array.from(el.getElementsByTagName("pre"));
-    codeBlocks.forEach(p => {
-        const button = document.createElement("span");
-        button.className = "mx_EventTile_copyButton";
-        p.appendChild(button);
-    });
-    return el.innerHTML;
-}
-
 export function emojifyText(text) {
     return {
         __html: unicodeToImage(escape(text)),
diff --git a/src/components/views/messages/TextualBody.js b/src/components/views/messages/TextualBody.js
index 58273bee67..3937780c2a 100644
--- a/src/components/views/messages/TextualBody.js
+++ b/src/components/views/messages/TextualBody.js
@@ -113,14 +113,17 @@ module.exports = React.createClass({
                     }
                 }, 10);
             }
-            // add event handlers to the 'copy code' buttons
-            const buttons = ReactDOM.findDOMNode(this).getElementsByClassName("mx_EventTile_copyButton");
-            for (let i = 0; i < buttons.length; i++) {
-                buttons[i].onclick = (e) => {
-                    const copyCode = buttons[i].parentNode.getElementsByTagName("code")[0];
+
+            // Add 'copy' buttons to pre blocks
+            ReactDOM.findDOMNode(this).querySelectorAll('.mx_EventTile_body pre').forEach((p) => {
+                const button = document.createElement("span");
+                button.className = "mx_EventTile_copyButton";
+                button.onclick = (e) => {
+                    const copyCode = button.parentNode.getElementsByTagName("code")[0];
                     this.copyToClipboard(copyCode.textContent);
                 };
-            }
+                p.appendChild(button);
+            });
         }
     },