diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 226e6a2e..b043c629 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -108,7 +108,7 @@ if(NOT (BUILD_STATIC_LIBS OR BUILD_SHARED_LIBS))
     FATAL_ERROR "At least one of static or shared libraries must be built")
 endif()
 
-add_compile_definitions($<$<COMPILE_LANGUAGE:CXX>:POINTERHOLDER_TRANSITION=3>)
+add_compile_definitions($<$<COMPILE_LANGUAGE:CXX>:POINTERHOLDER_TRANSITION=4>)
 
 enable_testing()
 set(RUN_QTEST perl ${qpdf_SOURCE_DIR}/run-qtest)
diff --git a/libqpdf/InputSource.cc b/libqpdf/InputSource.cc
index 0afca9e3..00ebccb5 100644
--- a/libqpdf/InputSource.cc
+++ b/libqpdf/InputSource.cc
@@ -1,6 +1,5 @@
 #include <qpdf/InputSource.hh>
 
-#include <qpdf/PointerHolder.hh>
 #include <qpdf/QIntC.hh>
 #include <qpdf/QTC.hh>
 #include <stdexcept>
diff --git a/libqpdf/Pl_SHA2.cc b/libqpdf/Pl_SHA2.cc
index d41e6a78..3113729f 100644
--- a/libqpdf/Pl_SHA2.cc
+++ b/libqpdf/Pl_SHA2.cc
@@ -1,6 +1,5 @@
 #include <qpdf/Pl_SHA2.hh>
 
-#include <qpdf/PointerHolder.hh>
 #include <qpdf/QPDFCryptoProvider.hh>
 #include <qpdf/QUtil.hh>
 #include <cstdio>
diff --git a/libqpdf/QUtil.cc b/libqpdf/QUtil.cc
index 42b9e017..711065df 100644
--- a/libqpdf/QUtil.cc
+++ b/libqpdf/QUtil.cc
@@ -5,7 +5,6 @@
 
 #include <qpdf/CryptoRandomDataProvider.hh>
 #include <qpdf/Pipeline.hh>
-#include <qpdf/PointerHolder.hh>
 #include <qpdf/QIntC.hh>
 #include <qpdf/QPDFSystemError.hh>
 #include <qpdf/QTC.hh>
diff --git a/libqpdf/SHA2_native.cc b/libqpdf/SHA2_native.cc
index 949d5634..ac7d6135 100644
--- a/libqpdf/SHA2_native.cc
+++ b/libqpdf/SHA2_native.cc
@@ -1,6 +1,5 @@
 #include <qpdf/SHA2_native.hh>
 
-#include <qpdf/PointerHolder.hh>
 #include <qpdf/QUtil.hh>
 #include <cstdio>
 #include <stdexcept>
diff --git a/libqpdf/qpdf/JSONHandler.hh b/libqpdf/qpdf/JSONHandler.hh
index e44ec161..9be50806 100644
--- a/libqpdf/qpdf/JSONHandler.hh
+++ b/libqpdf/qpdf/JSONHandler.hh
@@ -3,7 +3,6 @@
 
 #include <qpdf/DLL.h>
 #include <qpdf/JSON.hh>
-#include <qpdf/PointerHolder.hh>
 #include <functional>
 #include <map>
 #include <memory>
diff --git a/libqpdf/qpdf/OffsetInputSource.hh b/libqpdf/qpdf/OffsetInputSource.hh
index 0d7266dd..4af25dbd 100644
--- a/libqpdf/qpdf/OffsetInputSource.hh
+++ b/libqpdf/qpdf/OffsetInputSource.hh
@@ -5,7 +5,6 @@
 // input source but offset a specific number of bytes.
 
 #include <qpdf/InputSource.hh>
-#include <qpdf/PointerHolder.hh>
 
 class OffsetInputSource: public InputSource
 {
diff --git a/libtests/input_source.cc b/libtests/input_source.cc
index a32428be..ad7270cc 100644
--- a/libtests/input_source.cc
+++ b/libtests/input_source.cc
@@ -1,6 +1,5 @@
 #include <qpdf/Buffer.hh>
 #include <qpdf/BufferInputSource.hh>
-#include <qpdf/PointerHolder.hh>
 #include <qpdf/QPDFTokenizer.hh>
 #include <cstring>
 #include <iostream>
diff --git a/libtests/qutil.cc b/libtests/qutil.cc
index dda49898..324dd84e 100644
--- a/libtests/qutil.cc
+++ b/libtests/qutil.cc
@@ -1,5 +1,4 @@
 #include <qpdf/Pl_Buffer.hh>
-#include <qpdf/PointerHolder.hh>
 #include <qpdf/QPDFSystemError.hh>
 #include <qpdf/QUtil.hh>
 #include <fcntl.h>
diff --git a/qpdf/test_renumber.cc b/qpdf/test_renumber.cc
index 9892340a..da4d7c1d 100644
--- a/qpdf/test_renumber.cc
+++ b/qpdf/test_renumber.cc
@@ -1,5 +1,4 @@
 #include <qpdf/Buffer.hh>
-#include <qpdf/PointerHolder.hh>
 #include <qpdf/QPDF.hh>
 #include <qpdf/QPDFObjGen.hh>
 #include <qpdf/QPDFObject.hh>