diff --git a/compiler/ir/serialization.common/src/org/jetbrains/kotlin/backend/common/serialization/metadata/KlibMetadataIncrementalSerializer.kt b/compiler/ir/serialization.common/src/org/jetbrains/kotlin/backend/common/serialization/metadata/KlibMetadataIncrementalSerializer.kt
index 29c0006944a..b16b06f02db 100644
--- a/compiler/ir/serialization.common/src/org/jetbrains/kotlin/backend/common/serialization/metadata/KlibMetadataIncrementalSerializer.kt
+++ b/compiler/ir/serialization.common/src/org/jetbrains/kotlin/backend/common/serialization/metadata/KlibMetadataIncrementalSerializer.kt
@@ -25,9 +25,15 @@ class KlibMetadataIncrementalSerializer(
     metadataVersion: KlibMetadataVersion,
     project: Project,
     exportKDoc: Boolean,
-    skipExpects: Boolean,
     allowErrorTypes: Boolean = false
-) : KlibMetadataSerializer(languageVersionSettings, metadataVersion, project, exportKDoc, skipExpects, allowErrorTypes = allowErrorTypes) {
+) : KlibMetadataSerializer(
+    languageVersionSettings = languageVersionSettings,
+    metadataVersion = metadataVersion,
+    project = project,
+    exportKDoc = exportKDoc,
+    skipExpects = true, // Incremental compilation is not supposed to work when producing pure metadata (IR-less) KLIBs.
+    allowErrorTypes = allowErrorTypes
+) {
 
     fun serializePackageFragment(
         module: ModuleDescriptor,
diff --git a/compiler/ir/serialization.common/src/org/jetbrains/kotlin/backend/common/serialization/metadata/KlibMetadataSerializer.kt b/compiler/ir/serialization.common/src/org/jetbrains/kotlin/backend/common/serialization/metadata/KlibMetadataSerializer.kt
index 10db46b7dd6..749dd19aaa6 100644
--- a/compiler/ir/serialization.common/src/org/jetbrains/kotlin/backend/common/serialization/metadata/KlibMetadataSerializer.kt
+++ b/compiler/ir/serialization.common/src/org/jetbrains/kotlin/backend/common/serialization/metadata/KlibMetadataSerializer.kt
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ abstract class KlibMetadataSerializer(
     val metadataVersion: BinaryVersion,
     val project: Project?,
     val exportKDoc: Boolean = false,
-    val skipExpects: Boolean = false,
+    val skipExpects: Boolean,
     val includeOnlyModuleContent: Boolean = false,
     private val allowErrorTypes: Boolean,
     val produceHeaderKlib: Boolean = false,
diff --git a/compiler/ir/serialization.js/src/org/jetbrains/kotlin/ir/backend/js/klib.kt b/compiler/ir/serialization.js/src/org/jetbrains/kotlin/ir/backend/js/klib.kt
index be1fd18f592..7421ec82fbd 100644
--- a/compiler/ir/serialization.js/src/org/jetbrains/kotlin/ir/backend/js/klib.kt
+++ b/compiler/ir/serialization.js/src/org/jetbrains/kotlin/ir/backend/js/klib.kt
@@ -98,9 +98,6 @@ val KotlinLibrary.serializedKlibFingerprint: SerializedKlibFingerprint?
 private val CompilerConfiguration.metadataVersion
     get() = get(CommonConfigurationKeys.METADATA_VERSION) as? KlibMetadataVersion ?: KlibMetadataVersion.INSTANCE
 
-private val CompilerConfiguration.expectActualLinker: Boolean
-    get() = get(CommonConfigurationKeys.EXPECT_ACTUAL_LINKER) ?: false
-
 private val SerializedIrFile.fileMetadata: ByteArray
     get() = backendSpecificMetadata ?: error("Expect file caches to have backendSpecificMetadata, but '$path' doesn't")
 
@@ -838,7 +835,6 @@ fun KlibMetadataIncrementalSerializer(configuration: CompilerConfiguration, proj
         metadataVersion = configuration.metadataVersion,
         project = project,
         exportKDoc = false,
-        skipExpects = !configuration.expectActualLinker,
         allowErrorTypes = allowErrors
     )
 
diff --git a/compiler/tests-common/tests/org/jetbrains/kotlin/klib/AbstractKlibIrTextTestCase.kt b/compiler/tests-common/tests/org/jetbrains/kotlin/klib/AbstractKlibIrTextTestCase.kt
index 4554cf099dc..241e8a9b987 100644
--- a/compiler/tests-common/tests/org/jetbrains/kotlin/klib/AbstractKlibIrTextTestCase.kt
+++ b/compiler/tests-common/tests/org/jetbrains/kotlin/klib/AbstractKlibIrTextTestCase.kt
@@ -122,7 +122,6 @@ abstract class AbstractKlibIrTextTestCase : CodegenTestCase() {
             metadataVersion = KlibMetadataVersion.INSTANCE,
             project = project,
             exportKDoc = false,
-            skipExpects = true,
             allowErrorTypes = allowErrors
         )