diff --git a/R/pkg/R/SQLContext.R b/R/pkg/R/SQLContext.R
index 0c06bba639d9b..839f4b080eb0c 100644
--- a/R/pkg/R/SQLContext.R
+++ b/R/pkg/R/SQLContext.R
@@ -183,7 +183,10 @@ getDefaultSqlSource <- function() {
 # TODO(davies): support sampling and infer type from NA
 createDataFrame.default <- function(data, schema = NULL, samplingRatio = 1.0) {
   sparkSession <- getSparkSession()
+
   if (is.data.frame(data)) {
+      # Convert data into a list of rows. Each row is a list.
+
       # get the names of columns, they will be put into RDD
       if (is.null(schema)) {
         schema <- names(data)
@@ -208,6 +211,7 @@ createDataFrame.default <- function(data, schema = NULL, samplingRatio = 1.0) {
       args <- list(FUN = list, SIMPLIFY = FALSE, USE.NAMES = FALSE)
       data <- do.call(mapply, append(args, data))
   }
+
   if (is.list(data)) {
     sc <- callJStatic("org.apache.spark.sql.api.r.SQLUtils", "getJavaSparkContext", sparkSession)
     rdd <- parallelize(sc, data)
diff --git a/R/pkg/R/utils.R b/R/pkg/R/utils.R
index d78c0a7a539a8..caaa7a8370a0b 100644
--- a/R/pkg/R/utils.R
+++ b/R/pkg/R/utils.R
@@ -697,3 +697,18 @@ is_master_local <- function(master) {
 is_sparkR_shell <- function() {
   grepl(".*shell\\.R$", Sys.getenv("R_PROFILE_USER"), perl = TRUE)
 }
+
+# rbind a list of rows with raw (binary) columns
+#
+# @param inputData a list of rows, with each row a list
+# @return data.frame with raw columns as lists
+rbindRaws <- function(inputData){
+  row1 <- inputData[[1]]
+  rawcolumns <- ("raw" == sapply(row1, class))
+
+  listmatrix <- do.call(rbind, inputData)
+  # A dataframe with all list columns
+  out <- as.data.frame(listmatrix)
+  out[!rawcolumns] <- lapply(out[!rawcolumns], unlist)
+  out
+}
diff --git a/R/pkg/inst/tests/testthat/test_sparkSQL.R b/R/pkg/inst/tests/testthat/test_sparkSQL.R
index 3ccb8b6d77bf6..c1faf58d30df5 100644
--- a/R/pkg/inst/tests/testthat/test_sparkSQL.R
+++ b/R/pkg/inst/tests/testthat/test_sparkSQL.R
@@ -2248,6 +2248,27 @@ test_that("dapply() and dapplyCollect() on a DataFrame", {
   expect_identical(expected, result)
 })
 
+test_that("dapplyCollect() on DataFrame with a binary column", {
+
+  df <- data.frame(key = 1:3)
+  df$bytes <- lapply(df$key, serialize, connection = NULL)
+
+  df_spark <- createDataFrame(df)
+
+  result1 <- collect(df_spark)
+  expect_identical(df, result1)
+
+  result2 <- dapplyCollect(df_spark, function(x) x)
+  expect_identical(df, result2)
+
+  # A data.frame with a single column of bytes
+  scb <- subset(df, select = "bytes")
+  scb_spark <- createDataFrame(scb)
+  result <- dapplyCollect(scb_spark, function(x) x)
+  expect_identical(scb, result)
+
+})
+
 test_that("repartition by columns on DataFrame", {
   df <- createDataFrame(
     list(list(1L, 1, "1", 0.1), list(1L, 2, "2", 0.2), list(3L, 3, "3", 0.3)),
diff --git a/R/pkg/inst/tests/testthat/test_utils.R b/R/pkg/inst/tests/testthat/test_utils.R
index 83e94a14322f9..77f25292f3f29 100644
--- a/R/pkg/inst/tests/testthat/test_utils.R
+++ b/R/pkg/inst/tests/testthat/test_utils.R
@@ -183,4 +183,28 @@ test_that("overrideEnvs", {
   expect_equal(config[["config_only"]], "ok")
 })
 
+test_that("rbindRaws", {
+
+  # Mixed Column types
+  r <- serialize(1:5, connection = NULL)
+  r1 <- serialize(1, connection = NULL)
+  r2 <- serialize(letters, connection = NULL)
+  r3 <- serialize(1:10, connection = NULL)
+  inputData <- list(list(1L, r1, "a", r), list(2L, r2, "b", r),
+                    list(3L, r3, "c", r))
+  expected <- data.frame(V1 = 1:3)
+  expected$V2 <- list(r1, r2, r3)
+  expected$V3 <- c("a", "b", "c")
+  expected$V4 <- list(r, r, r)
+  result <- rbindRaws(inputData)
+  expect_equal(expected, result)
+
+  # Single binary column
+  input <- list(list(r1), list(r2), list(r3))
+  expected <- subset(expected, select = "V2")
+  result <- setNames(rbindRaws(input), "V2")
+  expect_equal(expected, result)
+
+})
+
 sparkR.session.stop()
diff --git a/R/pkg/inst/worker/worker.R b/R/pkg/inst/worker/worker.R
index debf0180183a4..cfe41ded200c2 100644
--- a/R/pkg/inst/worker/worker.R
+++ b/R/pkg/inst/worker/worker.R
@@ -36,7 +36,14 @@ compute <- function(mode, partition, serializer, deserializer, key,
       # available since R 3.2.4. So we set the global option here.
       oldOpt <- getOption("stringsAsFactors")
       options(stringsAsFactors = FALSE)
-      inputData <- do.call(rbind.data.frame, inputData)
+
+      # Handle binary data types
+      if ("raw" %in% sapply(inputData[[1]], class)) {
+        inputData <- SparkR:::rbindRaws(inputData)
+      } else {
+        inputData <- do.call(rbind.data.frame, inputData)
+      }
+
       options(stringsAsFactors = oldOpt)
 
       names(inputData) <- colNames