diff --git a/t/t5551-http-fetch-smart.sh b/t/t5551-http-fetch-smart.sh
index 0908534f2561f4..921c69bcce7820 100755
--- a/t/t5551-http-fetch-smart.sh
+++ b/t/t5551-http-fetch-smart.sh
@@ -704,4 +704,22 @@ test_expect_success 'no empty path components' '
 	! grep "//" log
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'tag following always works over v0 http' '
+	upstream=$HTTPD_DOCUMENT_ROOT_PATH/tags &&
+	git init "$upstream" &&
+	(
+		cd "$upstream" &&
+		git commit --allow-empty -m base &&
+		git tag not-annotated &&
+		git tag -m foo annotated
+	) &&
+	git init tags &&
+	git -C tags -c protocol.version=0 \
+		fetch --depth 1 $HTTPD_URL/smart/tags \
+		refs/tags/annotated:refs/tags/annotated &&
+	git -C "$upstream" for-each-ref refs/tags >expect &&
+	git -C tags for-each-ref >actual &&
+	test_cmp expect actual
+'
+
 test_done
diff --git a/transport-helper.c b/transport-helper.c
index 3ea7c2bb5ad8c4..6f088639da09a7 100644
--- a/transport-helper.c
+++ b/transport-helper.c
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@
 #include "refspec.h"
 #include "transport-internal.h"
 #include "protocol.h"
+#include "packfile.h"
 
 static int debug;
 
@@ -429,6 +430,8 @@ static int fetch_with_fetch(struct transport *transport,
 			warning(_("%s unexpectedly said: '%s'"), data->name, buf.buf);
 	}
 	strbuf_release(&buf);
+
+	reprepare_packed_git(the_repository);
 	return 0;
 }