diff --git a/src/ccmain/tessedit.cpp b/src/ccmain/tessedit.cpp
index c97ce83c2d..2579b70d27 100644
--- a/src/ccmain/tessedit.cpp
+++ b/src/ccmain/tessedit.cpp
@@ -308,7 +308,8 @@ int Tesseract::init_tesseract(const std::string &arg0, const std::string &textba
   // Load the rest into sub_langs_.
   // A range based for loop does not work here because langs_to_load
   // might be changed in the loop when a new submodel is found.
-  for (auto &lang_to_load : langs_to_load) {
+  for (size_t idx = 0; idx < langs_to_load.size(); ++idx) {
+    const auto &lang_to_load = langs_to_load[idx];
     if (!IsStrInList(lang_to_load, langs_not_to_load)) {
       const char *lang_str = lang_to_load.c_str();
       Tesseract *tess_to_init;