diff --git a/CHANGELOG.asciidoc b/CHANGELOG.asciidoc
index f39869165d54..4247fef76f83 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.asciidoc
+++ b/CHANGELOG.asciidoc
@@ -65,6 +65,12 @@ https://github.com/elastic/beats/compare/v1.2.3...1.2[Check the HEAD diff]
 === Beats version 1.2.3
 https://github.com/elastic/beats/compare/v1.2.2...v1.2.3[View commits]
 
+==== Added
+
+*Filebeat*
+
+- Prevent file opening for files which reached ignore_older.
+
 ==== Bugfixes
 
 *Topbeat*
diff --git a/filebeat/crawler/prospector.go b/filebeat/crawler/prospector.go
index 8e6f6c9413b9..58532930dbc6 100644
--- a/filebeat/crawler/prospector.go
+++ b/filebeat/crawler/prospector.go
@@ -358,6 +358,11 @@ func (p *Prospector) checkNewFile(newinfo *harvester.FileStat, file string, outp
 		p.ProspectorConfig.IgnoreOlderDuration != 0 &&
 		time.Since(newinfo.Fileinfo.ModTime()) > p.ProspectorConfig.IgnoreOlderDuration {
 
+		if oldState.offset == newinfo.Fileinfo.Size() {
+			logp.Debug("prospector", "File size of ignore_file didn't change. Nothing to do: %s", file)
+			return
+		}
+
 		logp.Debug("prospector", "Fetching old state of file to resume: %s", file)
 
 		// Are we resuming a dead file? We have to resume even if dead so we catch any old updates to the file
@@ -374,7 +379,7 @@ func (p *Prospector) checkNewFile(newinfo *harvester.FileStat, file string, outp
 				p.ProspectorConfig.IgnoreOlderDuration,
 				time.Since(newinfo.Fileinfo.ModTime()),
 				file)
-			newinfo.Skip(newinfo.Fileinfo.Size())
+			h.SetOffset(newinfo.Fileinfo.Size())
 		}
 		p.registrar.Persist <- h.GetState()
 	} else if previousFile, err := p.getPreviousFile(file, newinfo.Fileinfo); err == nil {
diff --git a/filebeat/harvester/harvester.go b/filebeat/harvester/harvester.go
index 2c97b5249795..48e5535be804 100644
--- a/filebeat/harvester/harvester.go
+++ b/filebeat/harvester/harvester.go
@@ -106,7 +106,3 @@ func (fs *FileStat) Continue(old *FileStat) {
 		fs.Return = old.Return
 	}
 }
-
-func (fs *FileStat) Skip(returnOffset int64) {
-	fs.Return <- returnOffset
-}
diff --git a/filebeat/tests/system/test_registrar.py b/filebeat/tests/system/test_registrar.py
index 0150d9a4180d..0f75fbfdca1c 100644
--- a/filebeat/tests/system/test_registrar.py
+++ b/filebeat/tests/system/test_registrar.py
@@ -395,10 +395,11 @@ def test_state_after_rotation_ignore_older(self):
         if os.name == "nt":
             # Under windows offset is +1 because of additional newline char
             assert data[os.path.abspath(testfile1)]["offset"] == 9
+            assert data[os.path.abspath(testfile2)]["offset"] == 8
         else:
             assert data[os.path.abspath(testfile1)]["offset"] == 8
+            assert data[os.path.abspath(testfile2)]["offset"] == 7
 
-        assert data[os.path.abspath(testfile2)]["offset"] == 0
 
         # Rotate files and remove old one
         os.rename(testfile2, testfile3)