diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index f9b998a6ac0..84539df4c6d 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@
 - [#7797](https://github.com/influxdata/influxdb/issues/7706): Fix data deleted outside of time range
 - [#8822](https://github.com/influxdata/influxdb/issues/8822): Fix data dropped incorrectly during compaction
 - [#9006](https://github.com/influxdata/influxdb/pull/9006): Return `query.ErrQueryInterrupted` for a successful read on `InterruptCh`.
+- [#8978](https://github.com/influxdata/influxdb/pull/8978): Copy returned bytes from TSI meta functions.
 
 
 ## v1.3.6 [2017-09-29]
diff --git a/pkg/bytesutil/bytesutil.go b/pkg/bytesutil/bytesutil.go
index 24d0598f7ec..eb80b34d323 100644
--- a/pkg/bytesutil/bytesutil.go
+++ b/pkg/bytesutil/bytesutil.go
@@ -65,6 +65,25 @@ func Intersect(a, b [][]byte) [][]byte {
 	return other
 }
 
+// Clone returns a copy of b.
+func Clone(b []byte) []byte {
+	if b == nil {
+		return nil
+	}
+	buf := make([]byte, len(b))
+	copy(buf, b)
+	return buf
+}
+
+// CloneSlice returns a copy of a slice of byte slices.
+func CloneSlice(a [][]byte) [][]byte {
+	other := make([][]byte, len(a))
+	for i := range a {
+		other[i] = Clone(a[i])
+	}
+	return other
+}
+
 type byteSlices [][]byte
 
 func (a byteSlices) Len() int           { return len(a) }
diff --git a/tsdb/index/tsi1/index.go b/tsdb/index/tsi1/index.go
index 0b32008c8bf..90aac1871c6 100644
--- a/tsdb/index/tsi1/index.go
+++ b/tsdb/index/tsi1/index.go
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ import (
 
 	"github.com/influxdata/influxdb/influxql"
 	"github.com/influxdata/influxdb/models"
+	"github.com/influxdata/influxdb/pkg/bytesutil"
 	"github.com/influxdata/influxdb/pkg/estimator"
 	"github.com/influxdata/influxdb/tsdb"
 	"github.com/uber-go/zap"
@@ -382,6 +383,8 @@ func (i *Index) MeasurementNamesByExpr(expr influxql.Expr) ([][]byte, error) {
 	fs := i.RetainFileSet()
 	defer fs.Release()
 	return fs.MeasurementNamesByExpr(expr)
+	names, err := fs.MeasurementNamesByExpr(expr)
+	return bytesutil.CloneSlice(names), err
 }
 
 func (i *Index) MeasurementNamesByRegex(re *regexp.Regexp) ([][]byte, error) {
@@ -392,7 +395,7 @@ func (i *Index) MeasurementNamesByRegex(re *regexp.Regexp) ([][]byte, error) {
 	var a [][]byte
 	for e := itr.Next(); e != nil; e = itr.Next() {
 		if re.Match(e.Name()) {
-			a = append(a, e.Name())
+			a = append(a, bytesutil.Clone(e.Name()))
 		}
 	}
 	return a, nil
@@ -714,7 +717,8 @@ func (i *Index) TagKeyCardinality(name, key []byte) int {
 func (i *Index) MeasurementSeriesKeysByExpr(name []byte, expr influxql.Expr) ([][]byte, error) {
 	fs := i.RetainFileSet()
 	defer fs.Release()
-	return fs.MeasurementSeriesKeysByExpr(name, expr, i.fieldset)
+	keys, err := fs.MeasurementSeriesKeysByExpr(name, expr, i.fieldset)
+	return bytesutil.CloneSlice(keys), err
 }
 
 // TagSets returns an ordered list of tag sets for a measurement by dimension
diff --git a/tsdb/index/tsi1/index_files.go b/tsdb/index/tsi1/index_files.go
index 1cb6f22e736..fb8f5df95b3 100644
--- a/tsdb/index/tsi1/index_files.go
+++ b/tsdb/index/tsi1/index_files.go
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ import (
 	"sort"
 	"time"
 
+	"github.com/influxdata/influxdb/pkg/bytesutil"
 	"github.com/influxdata/influxdb/pkg/estimator/hll"
 	"github.com/influxdata/influxdb/pkg/mmap"
 )
@@ -52,7 +53,7 @@ func (p *IndexFiles) MeasurementNames() [][]byte {
 	itr := p.MeasurementIterator()
 	var names [][]byte
 	for e := itr.Next(); e != nil; e = itr.Next() {
-		names = append(names, copyBytes(e.Name()))
+		names = append(names, bytesutil.Clone(e.Name()))
 	}
 	sort.Sort(byteSlices(names))
 	return names
diff --git a/tsdb/index/tsi1/tsi1.go b/tsdb/index/tsi1/tsi1.go
index 775ee1e99d9..c3928decae2 100644
--- a/tsdb/index/tsi1/tsi1.go
+++ b/tsdb/index/tsi1/tsi1.go
@@ -791,16 +791,6 @@ func (a byteSlices) Len() int           { return len(a) }
 func (a byteSlices) Swap(i, j int)      { a[i], a[j] = a[j], a[i] }
 func (a byteSlices) Less(i, j int) bool { return bytes.Compare(a[i], a[j]) == -1 }
 
-// copyBytes returns a copy of b.
-func copyBytes(b []byte) []byte {
-	if b == nil {
-		return nil
-	}
-	buf := make([]byte, len(b))
-	copy(buf, b)
-	return buf
-}
-
 // assert will panic with a given formatted message if the given condition is false.
 func assert(condition bool, msg string, v ...interface{}) {
 	if !condition {