diff --git a/meta/classes-recipe/deb-dl-dir.bbclass b/meta/classes-recipe/deb-dl-dir.bbclass
index 39c77151..29ed7822 100644
--- a/meta/classes-recipe/deb-dl-dir.bbclass
+++ b/meta/classes-recipe/deb-dl-dir.bbclass
@@ -178,6 +178,7 @@ deb_dl_dir_import() {
 
     # nothing to copy if download directory does not exist just yet
     [ ! -d "${pc}" ] && return 0
+    [ "${ISAR_PREFETCH_BASE_APT}" = "1" ] && return 0
 
     # attempt to create hard-links for .deb files from downloads/ into
     # /var/cache/apt/archives/ so apt will only download packages we
@@ -200,6 +201,7 @@ deb_dl_dir_export() {
     export rootfs="${1}"
     export owner=$(id -u):$(id -g)
     mkdir -p "${pc}"
+    [ "${ISAR_PREFETCH_BASE_APT}" = "1" ] && return 0
 
     export isar_debs=$(${SCRIPTSDIR}/lockrun.py -r -f '${REPO_ISAR_DIR}/isar.lock' -c \
     "find '${REPO_ISAR_DIR}/${DISTRO}' -name '*.deb' -print")
diff --git a/meta/recipes-core/isar-mmdebstrap/isar-mmdebstrap.inc b/meta/recipes-core/isar-mmdebstrap/isar-mmdebstrap.inc
index 8220d15e..d98db7fc 100644
--- a/meta/recipes-core/isar-mmdebstrap/isar-mmdebstrap.inc
+++ b/meta/recipes-core/isar-mmdebstrap/isar-mmdebstrap.inc
@@ -270,7 +270,8 @@ do_bootstrap() {
                    - \
                    "$bootstrap_list" > ${DEPLOYDIR}/${DEPLOY_ISAR_BOOTSTRAP}.tar.zst
 
-    if [ "${ISAR_USE_CACHED_BASE_REPO}" != "1" ]; then
+    if [ "${ISAR_USE_CACHED_BASE_REPO}" != "1" ] && \
+       [ "${ISAR_PREFETCH_BASE_APT}" != "1" ]; then
         deb_dl_dir_export "${WORKDIR}/dl_dir" "${BOOTSTRAP_BASE_DISTRO}-${BASE_DISTRO_CODENAME}"
         run_privileged find ${WORKDIR}/dl_dir -maxdepth 1 -mindepth 1 -exec rm -rf --one-file-system "{}" \;
         rmdir ${WORKDIR}/dl_dir