diff --git a/src/libostree/ostree-repo.c b/src/libostree/ostree-repo.c
index 33ca0ae8..49251284 100644
--- a/src/libostree/ostree-repo.c
+++ b/src/libostree/ostree-repo.c
@@ -3073,6 +3073,20 @@ copy_detached_metadata (OstreeRepo    *self,
   return TRUE;
 }
 
+/* Special case between bare-user and bare-user-only,
+ * mostly for https://github.com/flatpak/flatpak/issues/845
+ * see below for any more comments.
+ */
+static gboolean
+import_is_bareuser_only_conversion (OstreeRepo *src_repo,
+                                    OstreeRepo *dest_repo,
+                                    OstreeObjectType objtype)
+{
+  return src_repo->mode == OSTREE_REPO_MODE_BARE_USER
+    && dest_repo->mode == OSTREE_REPO_MODE_BARE_USER_ONLY
+    && objtype == OSTREE_OBJECT_TYPE_FILE;
+}
+
 static gboolean
 import_one_object_link (OstreeRepo    *self,
                         OstreeRepo    *source,
@@ -3085,6 +3099,33 @@ import_one_object_link (OstreeRepo    *self,
   char loose_path_buf[_OSTREE_LOOSE_PATH_MAX];
   _ostree_loose_path (loose_path_buf, checksum, objtype, self->mode);
 
+  /* Hardlinking between bare-user → bare-user-only is only possible for regular
+   * files, *not* symlinks, which in bare-user are stored as regular files.  At
+   * this point we need to parse the file to see the difference.
+   */
+  if (import_is_bareuser_only_conversion (source, self, objtype))
+    {
+      g_autoptr(GFileInfo) finfo = NULL;
+
+      if (!ostree_repo_load_file (source, checksum, NULL, &finfo, NULL,
+                                  cancellable, error))
+        return FALSE;
+
+      switch (g_file_info_get_file_type (finfo))
+        {
+        case G_FILE_TYPE_REGULAR:
+          /* This is OK, we'll drop through and try a hardlink */
+          break;
+        case G_FILE_TYPE_SYMBOLIC_LINK:
+          /* NOTE early return */
+          *out_was_supported = FALSE;
+          return TRUE;
+        default:
+          g_assert_not_reached ();
+          break;
+        }
+    }
+
   if (!_ostree_repo_ensure_loose_objdir_at (self->objects_dir_fd, loose_path_buf, cancellable, error))
     return FALSE;
 
@@ -3157,6 +3198,11 @@ import_via_hardlink_is_possible (OstreeRepo *src_repo,
   /* Metadata is identical between all modes */
   if (OSTREE_OBJECT_TYPE_IS_META (objtype))
     return TRUE;
+  /* And now a special case between bare-user and bare-user-only,
+   * mostly for https://github.com/flatpak/flatpak/issues/845
+   */
+  if (import_is_bareuser_only_conversion (src_repo, dest_repo, objtype))
+    return TRUE;
   return FALSE;
 }
 
diff --git a/tests/libtest.sh b/tests/libtest.sh
index 1774a7b6..15802dfd 100755
--- a/tests/libtest.sh
+++ b/tests/libtest.sh
@@ -116,10 +116,16 @@ else
     fi
 fi
 
+files_are_hardlinked() {
+    f1=$(stat -c %i $1)
+    f2=$(stat -c %i $2)
+    [ "$f1" == "$f2" ]
+}
+
 assert_files_hardlinked() {
     f1=$(stat -c %i $1)
     f2=$(stat -c %i $2)
-    if [ "$f1" != "$f2" ]; then
+    if ! files_are_hardlinked "$f1" "$f2"; then
         fatal "Files '$1' and '$2' are not hardlinked"
     fi
 }
@@ -512,12 +518,22 @@ ostree_file_path_to_checksum() {
     $CMD_PREFIX ostree --repo=$repo ls -C $ref $path | awk '{ print $5 }'
 }
 
+# Given a path to a file in a repo for a ref, print the (relative) path to its
+# object
+ostree_file_path_to_relative_object_path() {
+    repo=$1
+    ref=$2
+    path=$3
+    checksum=$(ostree_file_path_to_checksum $repo $ref $path)
+    test -n "${checksum}"
+    echo objects/${checksum:0:2}/${checksum:2}.file
+}
+
 # Given a path to a file in a repo for a ref, print the path to its object
 ostree_file_path_to_object_path() {
-   repo=$1
-   ref=$2
-   path=$3
-   checksum=$(ostree_file_path_to_checksum $repo $ref $path)
-   test -n "${checksum}"
-   echo ${repo}/objects/${checksum:0:2}/${checksum:2}.file
+    repo=$1
+    ref=$2
+    path=$3
+    relpath=$(ostree_file_path_to_relative_object_path $repo $ref $path)
+    echo ${repo}/${relpath}
 }
diff --git a/tests/test-basic-user-only.sh b/tests/test-basic-user-only.sh
index 29fbbdd3..fb071fe4 100755
--- a/tests/test-basic-user-only.sh
+++ b/tests/test-basic-user-only.sh
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ set -euo pipefail
 . $(dirname $0)/libtest.sh
 
 setup_test_repository "bare-user-only"
-extra_basic_tests=3
+extra_basic_tests=4
 . $(dirname $0)/basic-test.sh
 
 # Reset things so we don't inherit a lot of state from earlier tests
@@ -71,3 +71,22 @@ $CMD_PREFIX ostree pull-local --repo=repo repo-input
 $CMD_PREFIX ostree --repo=repo checkout -U -H content-with-dir-world-writable dir-co
 assert_file_has_mode dir-co/worldwritable-dir 775
 echo "ok didn't make world-writable dir"
+
+cd ${test_tmpdir}
+rm repo-input -rf
+rm repo -rf
+ostree_repo_init repo init --mode=bare-user-only
+ostree_repo_init repo-input init --mode=bare-user
+rm files -rf && mkdir files
+echo afile > files/afile
+ln -s afile files/afile-link
+$CMD_PREFIX ostree --repo=repo-input commit --canonical-permissions -b testtree --tree=dir=files
+afile_relobjpath=$(ostree_file_path_to_relative_object_path repo-input testtree /afile)
+afile_link_relobjpath=$(ostree_file_path_to_relative_object_path repo-input testtree /afile-link)
+$CMD_PREFIX ostree pull-local --repo=repo repo-input
+assert_files_hardlinked repo/${afile_relobjpath} repo-input/${afile_relobjpath}
+if files_are_hardlinked repo/${afile_link_relobjpath} repo-input/${afile_link_relobjpath}; then
+    assert_not_reached "symlinks hardlinked across bare-user?"
+fi
+$OSTREE fsck -q
+echo "ok hardlink pull from bare-user"