diff --git a/libqpdf/QPDFJob.cc b/libqpdf/QPDFJob.cc
index a18c4efc..b225c834 100644
--- a/libqpdf/QPDFJob.cc
+++ b/libqpdf/QPDFJob.cc
@@ -2717,24 +2717,14 @@ QPDFJob::handlePageSpecs(
         {
             filenames.insert(page_spec.filename);
         }
-        if (filenames.size() > o.keep_files_open_threshold)
-        {
-            QTC::TC("qpdf", "qpdf disable keep files open");
-            o.doIfVerbose([&](std::ostream& cout, std::string const& prefix) {
-                cout << prefix << ": selecting --keep-open-files=n"
-                     << std::endl;
-            });
-            o.keep_files_open = false;
-        }
-        else
-        {
-            o.doIfVerbose([&](std::ostream& cout, std::string const& prefix) {
-                cout << prefix << ": selecting --keep-open-files=y"
-                     << std::endl;
-            });
-            o.keep_files_open = true;
-            QTC::TC("qpdf", "qpdf don't disable keep files open");
-        }
+        o.keep_files_open = (filenames.size() <= o.keep_files_open_threshold);
+        QTC::TC("qpdf", "qpdf automatically set keep files open",
+                o.keep_files_open ? 0 : 1);
+        o.doIfVerbose([&](std::ostream& cout, std::string const& prefix) {
+            cout << prefix << ": selecting --keep-open-files="
+                 << (o.keep_files_open ? "y" : "n")
+                 << std::endl;
+        });
     }
 
     // Create a QPDF object for each file that we may take pages from.
diff --git a/qpdf/qpdf.testcov b/qpdf/qpdf.testcov
index bc28ea27..4b273c0a 100644
--- a/qpdf/qpdf.testcov
+++ b/qpdf/qpdf.testcov
@@ -349,10 +349,9 @@ QPDFAcroFormDocumentHelper non-dictionary field 0
 QPDFAcroFormDocumentHelper loop 0
 QPDFAcroFormDocumentHelper field found 1
 QPDFAcroFormDocumentHelper annotation found 1
-qpdf disable keep files open 0
 qpdf keep files open n 0
 qpdf keep files open y 0
-qpdf don't disable keep files open 0
+qpdf automatically set keep files open 1
 QPDFPageLabelDocumentHelper skip first 0
 QPDFOutlineObjectHelper direct dest 0
 QPDFOutlineObjectHelper action dest 0