diff --git a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/StoreScanner.java b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/StoreScanner.java
index 736c08ab039..e7a4528bd1a 100644
--- a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/StoreScanner.java
+++ b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/StoreScanner.java
@@ -802,12 +802,16 @@ public class StoreScanner extends NonReversedNonLazyKeyValueScanner
   @VisibleForTesting
   protected boolean trySkipToNextRow(Cell cell) throws IOException {
     Cell nextCell = null;
+    // used to guard against a changed next indexed key by doing a identity comparison
+    // when the identity changes we need to compare the bytes again
+    Cell previousIndexedKey = null;
     do {
       Cell nextIndexedKey = getNextIndexedKey();
       if (nextIndexedKey != null && nextIndexedKey != KeyValueScanner.NO_NEXT_INDEXED_KEY
-          && matcher.compareKeyForNextRow(nextIndexedKey, cell) >= 0) {
+          && (nextIndexedKey == previousIndexedKey || matcher.compareKeyForNextRow(nextIndexedKey, cell) >= 0)) {
         this.heap.next();
         ++kvsScanned;
+        previousIndexedKey = nextIndexedKey;
       } else {
         return false;
       }
@@ -823,12 +827,16 @@ public class StoreScanner extends NonReversedNonLazyKeyValueScanner
   @VisibleForTesting
   protected boolean trySkipToNextColumn(Cell cell) throws IOException {
     Cell nextCell = null;
+    // used to guard against a changed next indexed key by doing a identity comparison
+    // when the identity changes we need to compare the bytes again
+    Cell previousIndexedKey = null;
     do {
       Cell nextIndexedKey = getNextIndexedKey();
       if (nextIndexedKey != null && nextIndexedKey != KeyValueScanner.NO_NEXT_INDEXED_KEY
-          && matcher.compareKeyForNextColumn(nextIndexedKey, cell) >= 0) {
+          && (nextIndexedKey == previousIndexedKey || matcher.compareKeyForNextColumn(nextIndexedKey, cell) >= 0)) {
         this.heap.next();
         ++kvsScanned;
+        previousIndexedKey = nextIndexedKey;
       } else {
         return false;
       }