diff --git a/Documentation/config/core.txt b/Documentation/config/core.txt
index 62fd04c950b4f5..bcb2983798488b 100644
--- a/Documentation/config/core.txt
+++ b/Documentation/config/core.txt
@@ -741,6 +741,15 @@ core.gvfs::
 		Bit value 4
 		Normally git write-tree ensures that the objects referenced by the
 		directory exist in the object database. This option disables this check.
+	GVFS_NO_DELETE_OUTSIDE_SPARSECHECKOUT::
+		Bit value 8
+		When marking entries to remove from the index and the working
+		directory this option will take into account what the
+		skip-worktree bit was set to so that if the entry has the
+		skip-worktree bit set it will not be removed from the working
+		directory.  This will allow virtualized working directories to
+		detect the change to HEAD and use the new commit tree to show
+		the files that are in the working directory.
 --
 
 core.sparseCheckout::
diff --git a/gvfs.h b/gvfs.h
index 0dc573b189b487..d8cb51f5df3955 100644
--- a/gvfs.h
+++ b/gvfs.h
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@
  */
 #define GVFS_SKIP_SHA_ON_INDEX                      (1 << 0)
 #define GVFS_MISSING_OK                             (1 << 2)
+#define GVFS_NO_DELETE_OUTSIDE_SPARSECHECKOUT       (1 << 3)
 
 static inline int gvfs_config_is_set(int mask) {
 	return (core_gvfs & mask) == mask;
diff --git a/t/t1090-sparse-checkout-scope.sh b/t/t1090-sparse-checkout-scope.sh
index 529844e2862c74..effa20aab7bea7 100755
--- a/t/t1090-sparse-checkout-scope.sh
+++ b/t/t1090-sparse-checkout-scope.sh
@@ -106,6 +106,26 @@ test_expect_success 'in partial clone, sparse checkout only fetches needed blobs
 	test_cmp expect actual
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'checkout does not delete items outside the sparse checkout file' '
+	# The "sparse.expectfilesoutsideofpatterns" config will prevent the
+	# SKIP_WORKTREE flag from being dropped on files present on-disk.
+	test_config sparse.expectfilesoutsideofpatterns true &&
+
+	test_config core.gvfs 8 &&
+	git checkout -b outside &&
+	echo "new file1" >d &&
+	git add --sparse d &&
+	git commit -m "branch initial" &&
+	echo "new file1" >e &&
+	git add --sparse e &&
+	git commit -m "skipped worktree" &&
+	git update-index --skip-worktree e &&
+	echo "/d" >.git/info/sparse-checkout &&
+	git checkout HEAD^ &&
+	test_path_is_file d &&
+	test_path_is_file e
+'
+
 test_expect_success MINGW 'no unnecessary opendir() with fscache' '
 	git clone . fscache-test &&
 	(
diff --git a/unpack-trees.c b/unpack-trees.c
index 4fda556734240a..edcc561d054779 100644
--- a/unpack-trees.c
+++ b/unpack-trees.c
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 #include "cache.h"
 #include "advice.h"
+#include "gvfs.h"
 #include "strvec.h"
 #include "repository.h"
 #include "config.h"
@@ -2667,6 +2668,27 @@ static int deleted_entry(const struct cache_entry *ce,
 
 	if (!(old->ce_flags & CE_CONFLICTED) && verify_uptodate(old, o))
 		return -1;
+
+	/*
+	 * When marking entries to remove from the index and the working
+	 * directory this option will take into account what the
+	 * skip-worktree bit was set to so that if the entry has the
+	 * skip-worktree bit set it will not be removed from the working
+	 * directory.  This will allow virtualized working directories to
+	 * detect the change to HEAD and use the new commit tree to show
+	 * the files that are in the working directory.
+	 *
+	 * old is the cache_entry that will have the skip-worktree bit set
+	 * which will need to be preserved when the CE_REMOVE entry is added
+	 */
+	if (gvfs_config_is_set(GVFS_NO_DELETE_OUTSIDE_SPARSECHECKOUT) &&
+		old &&
+		old->ce_flags & CE_SKIP_WORKTREE) {
+		add_entry(o, old, CE_REMOVE, 0);
+		invalidate_ce_path(old, o);
+		return 1;
+	}
+
 	add_entry(o, ce, CE_REMOVE, 0);
 	invalidate_ce_path(ce, o);
 	return 1;