diff --git a/esphome/components/esp8266/preferences.cpp b/esphome/components/esp8266/preferences.cpp
index 7c0c264054..041736943b 100644
--- a/esphome/components/esp8266/preferences.cpp
+++ b/esphome/components/esp8266/preferences.cpp
@@ -149,7 +149,12 @@ class ESP8266PreferenceBackend : public ESPPreferenceBackend {
       return false;
 
     uint32_t crc = calculate_crc(buffer.begin(), buffer.end() - 1, type);
-    return buffer[buffer.size() - 1] == crc;
+    if (buffer[buffer.size() - 1] != crc) {
+      return false;
+    }
+
+    memcpy(data, buffer.data(), len);
+    return true;
   }
 };