diff --git a/builtin/pack-objects.c b/builtin/pack-objects.c
index 5781dec980..a44f0ce1c7 100644
--- a/builtin/pack-objects.c
+++ b/builtin/pack-objects.c
@@ -1703,8 +1703,16 @@ static int want_object_in_pack_mtime(const struct object_id *oid,
 	struct list_head *pos;
 	struct multi_pack_index *m;
 
-	if (!exclude && local && has_loose_object_nonlocal(oid))
-		return 0;
+	if (!exclude && local) {
+		/*
+		 * Note that we start iterating at `sources->next` so that we
+		 * skip the local object source.
+		 */
+		struct odb_source *source = the_repository->objects->sources->next;
+		for (; source; source = source->next)
+			if (has_loose_object(source, oid))
+				return 0;
+	}
 
 	/*
 	 * If we already know the pack object lives in, start checks from that
@@ -3928,7 +3936,14 @@ static void add_cruft_object_entry(const struct object_id *oid, enum object_type
 	} else {
 		if (!want_object_in_pack_mtime(oid, 0, &pack, &offset, mtime))
 			return;
-		if (!pack && type == OBJ_BLOB && !has_loose_object(oid)) {
+		if (!pack && type == OBJ_BLOB) {
+			struct odb_source *source = the_repository->objects->sources;
+			int found = 0;
+
+			for (; !found && source; source = source->next)
+				if (has_loose_object(source, oid))
+					found = 1;
+
 			/*
 			 * If a traversed tree has a missing blob then we want
 			 * to avoid adding that missing object to our pack.
@@ -3942,7 +3957,8 @@ static void add_cruft_object_entry(const struct object_id *oid, enum object_type
 			 * limited to "ensure non-tip blobs which don't exist in
 			 * packs do exist via loose objects". Confused?
 			 */
-			return;
+			if (!found)
+				return;
 		}
 
 		entry = create_object_entry(oid, type, pack_name_hash_fn(name),
diff --git a/object-file.c b/object-file.c
index bc395febc9..7aecaa3d2a 100644
--- a/object-file.c
+++ b/object-file.c
@@ -121,14 +121,10 @@ static int check_and_freshen(const struct object_id *oid, int freshen)
 	       check_and_freshen_nonlocal(oid, freshen);
 }
 
-int has_loose_object_nonlocal(const struct object_id *oid)
+int has_loose_object(struct odb_source *source,
+		     const struct object_id *oid)
 {
-	return check_and_freshen_nonlocal(oid, 0);
-}
-
-int has_loose_object(const struct object_id *oid)
-{
-	return check_and_freshen(oid, 0);
+	return check_and_freshen_odb(source, oid, 0);
 }
 
 int format_object_header(char *str, size_t size, enum object_type type,
@@ -1103,8 +1099,10 @@ int force_object_loose(const struct object_id *oid, time_t mtime)
 	int hdrlen;
 	int ret;
 
-	if (has_loose_object(oid))
-		return 0;
+	for (struct odb_source *source = repo->objects->sources; source; source = source->next)
+		if (has_loose_object(source, oid))
+			return 0;
+
 	oi.typep = &type;
 	oi.sizep = &len;
 	oi.contentp = &buf;
diff --git a/object-file.h b/object-file.h
index 222ff2871a..5b63a05ab5 100644
--- a/object-file.h
+++ b/object-file.h
@@ -45,13 +45,12 @@ const char *odb_loose_path(struct odb_source *source,
 			   const struct object_id *oid);
 
 /*
- * Return true iff an alternate object database has a loose object
+ * Return true iff an object database source has a loose object
  * with the specified name.  This function does not respect replace
  * references.
  */
-int has_loose_object_nonlocal(const struct object_id *);
-
-int has_loose_object(const struct object_id *);
+int has_loose_object(struct odb_source *source,
+		     const struct object_id *oid);
 
 void *map_loose_object(struct repository *r, const struct object_id *oid,
 		       unsigned long *size);