diff --git a/include/villas/sample.h b/include/villas/sample.h
index f7fbffe56..707058739 100644
--- a/include/villas/sample.h
+++ b/include/villas/sample.h
@@ -78,7 +78,7 @@ struct sample {
 };
 
 /** Request \p cnt samples from memory pool \p p and initialize them.
- *  This will leave the reference count of the sample to zero.
+ *  The reference count will already be set to 1.
  *  Use the sample_get() function to increase it. */
 int sample_alloc(struct pool *p, struct sample *smps[], int cnt);
 
diff --git a/lib/nodes/shmem.c b/lib/nodes/shmem.c
index 0ea7b4a9c..0541b2db8 100644
--- a/lib/nodes/shmem.c
+++ b/lib/nodes/shmem.c
@@ -203,8 +203,6 @@ int shmem_write(struct node *n, struct sample *smps[], unsigned cnt)
 		memcpy(shared_smps[i]->data, smps[i]->data, SAMPLE_DATA_LEN(len));
 
 		shared_smps[i]->length = len;
-
-		sample_get(shared_smps[i]);
 	}
 
 	if (atomic_load_explicit(&shm->shared->ext_stopped, memory_order_relaxed)) {