diff --git a/taglib/toolkit/trefcounter.cpp b/taglib/toolkit/trefcounter.cpp
index 18cb596c..5b089abf 100644
--- a/taglib/toolkit/trefcounter.cpp
+++ b/taglib/toolkit/trefcounter.cpp
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@
 # define ATOMIC_INC(x) __sync_add_and_fetch(&x, 1)
 # define ATOMIC_DEC(x) __sync_sub_and_fetch(&x, 1)
 #else
-# define ATOMIC_INT volatile int
+# define ATOMIC_INT int
 # define ATOMIC_INC(x) (++x)
 # define ATOMIC_DEC(x) (--x)
 #endif