diff --git a/builtin/clone.c b/builtin/clone.c
index 0fc89ae2b9..e568a7382b 100644
--- a/builtin/clone.c
+++ b/builtin/clone.c
@@ -639,7 +639,9 @@ static void write_followtags(const struct ref *refs, const char *msg)
 			continue;
 		if (ends_with(ref->name, "^{}"))
 			continue;
-		if (!has_object_file(&ref->old_oid))
+		if (!has_object_file_with_flags(&ref->old_oid,
+						OBJECT_INFO_QUICK |
+						OBJECT_INFO_SKIP_FETCH_OBJECT))
 			continue;
 		update_ref(msg, ref->name, &ref->old_oid, NULL, 0,
 			   UPDATE_REFS_DIE_ON_ERR);
diff --git a/t/t5616-partial-clone.sh b/t/t5616-partial-clone.sh
index da3ad4e32a..91322f3d97 100755
--- a/t/t5616-partial-clone.sh
+++ b/t/t5616-partial-clone.sh
@@ -405,6 +405,14 @@ test_expect_success 'verify fetch downloads only one pack when updating refs' '
 	test_line_count = 3 pack-list
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'single-branch tag following respects partial clone' '
+	git clone --single-branch -b B --filter=blob:none \
+		"file://$(pwd)/srv.bare" single &&
+	git -C single rev-parse --verify refs/tags/B &&
+	git -C single rev-parse --verify refs/tags/A &&
+	test_must_fail git -C single rev-parse --verify refs/tags/C
+'
+
 . "$TEST_DIRECTORY"/lib-httpd.sh
 start_httpd