diff --git a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/remote/RemoteExecutionService.java b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/remote/RemoteExecutionService.java
index ebe6efc6cb8659..506b6da393a9d0 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/remote/RemoteExecutionService.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/remote/RemoteExecutionService.java
@@ -1255,6 +1255,11 @@ private boolean shouldDownloadOutputsFor(RemoteActionResult result) {
     if (remoteOptions.remoteOutputsMode.downloadAllOutputs()) {
       return true;
     }
+    // An output materialized as a symlink might point to one of the other outputs.
+    if (!result.getOutputSymlinks().isEmpty() || !result.getOutputFileSymlinks().isEmpty()
+        || !result.getOutputDirectorySymlinks().isEmpty()) {
+      return true;
+    }
     // In case the action failed, download all outputs. It might be helpful for debugging and there
     // is no point in injecting output metadata of a failed action.
     if (result.getExitCode() != 0) {
diff --git a/src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/remote/BUILD b/src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/remote/BUILD
index bcdc577ff5ef0e..08460cc65eeab2 100644
--- a/src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/remote/BUILD
+++ b/src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/remote/BUILD
@@ -11,8 +11,8 @@ filegroup(
     srcs = glob(["**"]) + [
         "//src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/remote/circuitbreaker:srcs",
         "//src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/remote/downloader:srcs",
-        "//src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/remote/http:srcs",
         "//src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/remote/grpc:srcs",
+        "//src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/remote/http:srcs",
         "//src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/remote/logging:srcs",
         "//src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/remote/merkletree:srcs",
         "//src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/remote/options:srcs",
@@ -169,6 +169,7 @@ java_test(
         "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/standalone",
         "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/util:os",
         "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/vfs",
+        "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/vfs:pathfragment",
         "//src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/remote/util:integration_test_utils",
         "//third_party:guava",
         "//third_party:junit4",
diff --git a/src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/remote/BuildWithoutTheBytesIntegrationTest.java b/src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/remote/BuildWithoutTheBytesIntegrationTest.java
index c6ea8418c1a46d..e0ca5951cf40ce 100644
--- a/src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/remote/BuildWithoutTheBytesIntegrationTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/remote/BuildWithoutTheBytesIntegrationTest.java
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.util.OS;
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.vfs.FileSystemUtils;
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.vfs.Path;
+import com.google.devtools.build.lib.vfs.PathFragment;
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.vfs.Symlinks;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import org.junit.After;
@@ -680,4 +681,49 @@ public void remoteCacheEvictBlobs_whenUploadingInputTree_incrementalBuildCanCont
         "file-inside" + lineSeparator() + "updated bar" + lineSeparator(),
         /* isLocal= */ true);
   }
+
+  @Test
+  public void downloadTopLevel_genruleSymlinkToOutput() throws Exception {
+    // Disable test on Windows.
+    assumeFalse(OS.getCurrent() == OS.WINDOWS);
+
+    setDownloadToplevel();
+    write(
+        "BUILD",
+        "genrule(",
+        "  name = 'gen',",
+        "  outs = ['foo', 'foo-link'],",
+        "  cmd = 'cd $(RULEDIR) && echo hello > foo && ln -s foo foo-link',",
+        // In Blaze, heuristic label expansion defaults to True and will cause `foo` to be expanded
+        // into `blaze-out/.../bin/foo` in the genrule command line.
+        "  heuristic_label_expansion = False,",
+        ")");
+
+    buildTarget("//:gen");
+
+    assertSymlink("foo-link", PathFragment.create("foo"));
+    assertValidOutputFile("foo-link", "hello\n");
+
+    // Delete link, re-plant symlink
+    getOutputPath("foo").delete();
+    buildTarget("//:gen");
+
+    assertSymlink("foo-link", PathFragment.create("foo"));
+    assertValidOutputFile("foo-link", "hello\n");
+
+    // Delete target, re-download it
+    getOutputPath("foo").delete();
+
+    buildTarget("//:gen");
+
+    assertSymlink("foo-link", PathFragment.create("foo"));
+    assertValidOutputFile("foo-link", "hello\n");
+  }
+
+  protected void assertSymlink(String binRelativeLinkPath, PathFragment targetPath)
+      throws Exception {
+    Path output = getOutputPath(binRelativeLinkPath);
+    assertThat(output.isSymbolicLink()).isTrue();
+    assertThat(output.readSymbolicLink()).isEqualTo(targetPath);
+  }
 }