diff --git a/dist/index.js b/dist/index.js
index 766bb5544..455629582 100644
--- a/dist/index.js
+++ b/dist/index.js
@@ -1267,7 +1267,8 @@ function getSource(settings) {
             // LFS fetch
             // Explicit lfs-fetch to avoid slow checkout (fetches one lfs object at a time).
             // Explicit lfs fetch will fetch lfs objects in parallel.
-            if (settings.lfs) {
+            // For sparse checkouts, let `checkout` fetch the needed objects lazily.
+            if (settings.lfs && !settings.sparseCheckout) {
                 core.startGroup('Fetching LFS objects');
                 yield git.lfsFetch(checkoutInfo.startPoint || checkoutInfo.ref);
                 core.endGroup();
diff --git a/src/git-source-provider.ts b/src/git-source-provider.ts
index 967097d58..8f9d63f55 100644
--- a/src/git-source-provider.ts
+++ b/src/git-source-provider.ts
@@ -188,7 +188,8 @@ export async function getSource(settings: IGitSourceSettings): Promise<void> {
     // LFS fetch
     // Explicit lfs-fetch to avoid slow checkout (fetches one lfs object at a time).
     // Explicit lfs fetch will fetch lfs objects in parallel.
-    if (settings.lfs) {
+    // For sparse checkouts, let `checkout` fetch the needed objects lazily.
+    if (settings.lfs && !settings.sparseCheckout) {
       core.startGroup('Fetching LFS objects')
       await git.lfsFetch(checkoutInfo.startPoint || checkoutInfo.ref)
       core.endGroup()