diff --git a/src/basic/compress.c b/src/basic/compress.c
index b741f3db2f..eeecd59b41 100644
--- a/src/basic/compress.c
+++ b/src/basic/compress.c
@@ -1632,21 +1632,34 @@ int compress_stream(
         return 0;
 }
 
-/* Determine whether sparse writes should be used for this fd. Sparse writes are only safe on
- * regular files without O_APPEND (O_APPEND ignores lseek position, which would collapse holes). */
 static int should_sparse(int fd) {
         struct stat st;
 
         assert(fd >= 0);
 
+        /* Determine whether sparse writes should be used for this fd. Sparse writes are only safe on regular
+         * files, without O_APPEND (which ignores the lseek position, collapsing any holes we try to create),
+         * and only when starting from a position at or beyond the current end of file (otherwise the skipped
+         * ranges would overlap pre-existing data instead of being genuinely unwritten). */
+
         if (fstat(fd, &st) < 0)
                 return -errno;
 
+        if (!S_ISREG(st.st_mode))
+                return false;
+
         int flags = fcntl(fd, F_GETFL);
         if (flags < 0)
                 return -errno;
 
-        return S_ISREG(st.st_mode) && !FLAGS_SET(flags, O_APPEND);
+        if (FLAGS_SET(flags, O_APPEND))
+                return false;
+
+        off_t pos = lseek(fd, 0, SEEK_CUR);
+        if (pos < 0)
+                return -errno;
+
+        return pos >= st.st_size;
 }
 
 /* After sparse decompression, set the file size to the current position to account for
diff --git a/src/test/test-compress.c b/src/test/test-compress.c
index ec28d6f294..6ab482f718 100644
--- a/src/test/test-compress.c
+++ b/src/test/test-compress.c
@@ -433,8 +433,8 @@ static void compare_fd(int fda, int fdb) {
                 uint8_t bufa[4096], bufb[4096];
                 size_t to_read = MIN((size_t) (sta.st_size - offset), sizeof(bufa));
 
-                ASSERT_OK_EQ(loop_read(fda, bufa, to_read, true), (ssize_t) to_read);
-                ASSERT_OK_EQ(loop_read(fdb, bufb, to_read, true), (ssize_t) to_read);
+                ASSERT_OK(loop_read_exact(fda, bufa, to_read, /* do_poll= */ false));
+                ASSERT_OK(loop_read_exact(fdb, bufb, to_read, /* do_poll= */ false));
                 ASSERT_EQ(memcmp(bufa, bufb, to_read), 0);
                 offset += to_read;
         }
@@ -499,6 +499,27 @@ TEST(decompress_stream_sparse) {
                 else
                         log_debug("Filesystem does not support holes, skipping sparsity check");
 
+                /* Check if the decompressor clears previous data.
+                 * The original data is 4K data, 64K zeros, 4K data, 64K zeros.
+                 * Now, fill the file with 4K zeros, 64K data, 4K zeros, 64K data. */
+                log_debug("/* testing %s sparse decompression to an existing file */", compression_to_string(c));
+
+                ASSERT_OK_ERRNO(ftruncate(decompressed, 0));
+                ASSERT_OK_ERRNO(ftruncate(decompressed, 4096));
+                ASSERT_OK_ERRNO(lseek(decompressed, 4096, SEEK_SET));
+                for (unsigned i = 0; i < 16; i++)
+                        ASSERT_OK(loop_write(decompressed, data_block, sizeof(data_block)));
+                ASSERT_OK_ERRNO(ftruncate(decompressed, 4096 + 16 * sizeof(data_block) + 4096));
+                ASSERT_OK_ERRNO(lseek(decompressed, 4096 + 16 * sizeof(data_block) + 4096, SEEK_SET));
+                for (unsigned i = 0; i < 16; i++)
+                        ASSERT_OK(loop_write(decompressed, data_block, sizeof(data_block)));
+
+                ASSERT_OK_ERRNO(lseek(compressed, 0, SEEK_SET));
+                ASSERT_OK_ERRNO(lseek(decompressed, 0, SEEK_SET));
+                ASSERT_OK_ZERO(decompress_stream(c, compressed, decompressed, st_src.st_size));
+
+                compare_fd(src, decompressed);
+
                 /* Test all-zeros input: entire output should be a hole */
                 log_debug("/* testing %s sparse decompression of all-zeros */", compression_to_string(c));
                 {