diff --git a/src/ReferenceStack.php b/src/ReferenceStack.php
index dd45326ab..ae697b5b3 100644
--- a/src/ReferenceStack.php
+++ b/src/ReferenceStack.php
@@ -181,7 +181,7 @@ class ReferenceStack {
 			unset( $ref['number'] );
 			$ref = array_merge( $ref, $this->refs[$group][$name] );
 			$this->refs[$group][$name] =& $ref;
-			$action = 'new';
+			$action = 'new-from-placeholder';
 		} elseif ( !isset( $this->refs[$group][$name] ) ) {
 			// Valid key with first occurrence
 			$this->refs[$group][$name] = &$ref;
@@ -346,6 +346,10 @@ class ReferenceStack {
 				}
 				// TODO: else, don't we need to decrement groupRefSequence?
 				break;
+			case 'new-from-placeholder':
+				$this->refs[$group][$lookup]['__placeholder__'] = true;
+				unset( $this->refs[$group][$lookup]['count'] );
+				break;
 			case 'assign':
 				# Rollback assignment of text to pre-existing elements.
 				$this->refs[$group][$lookup]['text'] = null;
diff --git a/tests/parser/bookReferencing.txt b/tests/parser/bookReferencing.txt
index 94a23ac96..f04fd3699 100644
--- a/tests/parser/bookReferencing.txt
+++ b/tests/parser/bookReferencing.txt
@@ -570,7 +570,6 @@ wgCiteBookReferencing=true
 </ol></div>
 !! end
 
-# TODO: Should behave the same as above!
 !! test
 T239810: Extending a <ref> that doesn't appear in the text, but in {{#tag:references}}
 !! config
@@ -584,11 +583,11 @@ wgCiteBookReferencing=true
 <p><sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-1">&#91;1.1&#93;</a></sup>
 </p>
 <div class="mw-references-wrap"><ol class="references">
+<li id="cite_note-a-2"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">↑ </span> <span class="reference-text">Book</span>
 <ol class="mw-extended-references"><li id="cite_note-1"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-1">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text">Page 2</span>
 </li>
-</ol></ol></div>
-<p><span class="error mw-ext-cite-error" lang="en" dir="ltr">Cite error: <code>&lt;ref&gt;</code> tag with name "a" defined in <code>&lt;references&gt;</code> is not used in prior text.</span>
-</p>
+</ol></li>
+</ol></div>
 !! end
 
 # TODO: This should be invalid, there's no way to know that `footwo` should be subnumbered in a one-pass parse.
@@ -622,7 +621,6 @@ wgCiteBookReferencing=true
 <ref>BAR</ref>
 <ref name="footwo" extends="foo">page 7</ref>
 <ref name="foo" />
-
 {{#tag:references|
 <ref name="foo">book name</ref>
 }}
diff --git a/tests/phpunit/unit/ReferenceStackTest.php b/tests/phpunit/unit/ReferenceStackTest.php
index ec61b27d9..822eada5e 100644
--- a/tests/phpunit/unit/ReferenceStackTest.php
+++ b/tests/phpunit/unit/ReferenceStackTest.php
@@ -502,7 +502,7 @@ class ReferenceStackTest extends \MediaWikiUnitTestCase {
 				],
 				[
 					[ 'new', 1, 'foo', 'a', 'b', 'text-a', [] ],
-					[ 'new', 2, 'foo', 'b', null, 'text-b', [] ],
+					[ 'new-from-placeholder', 2, 'foo', 'b', null, 'text-b', [] ],
 				]
 			],
 			'Named extends after parent' => [
@@ -644,7 +644,7 @@ class ReferenceStackTest extends \MediaWikiUnitTestCase {
 				],
 				[
 					[ 'new', 1, 'foo', null, 'b', 'text-a', [] ],
-					[ 'new', 2, 'foo', 'b', null, 'text-b', [] ],
+					[ 'new-from-placeholder', 2, 'foo', 'b', null, 'text-b', [] ],
 				]
 			],
 			'Anonymous extends after parent' => [