diff --git a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/remote/RemoteSpawnCache.java b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/remote/RemoteSpawnCache.java
index 2da0cc1203d446..6f99064a21a760 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/remote/RemoteSpawnCache.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/remote/RemoteSpawnCache.java
@@ -142,7 +142,7 @@ public CacheHandle lookup(Spawn spawn, SpawnExecutionContext context)
         try (SilentCloseable c = Profiler.instance().profile("RemoteCache.getCachedActionResult")) {
           result = remoteCache.getCachedActionResult(actionKey);
         }
-        if (result != null) {
+        if (result != null && (result.getOutputFilesCount() + result.getOutputDirectoriesCount() > 0)) {
           // We don't cache failed actions, so we know the outputs exist.
           // For now, download all outputs locally; in the future, we can reuse the digests to
           // just update the TreeNodeRepository and continue the build.