diff --git a/artifacts/scripts/construct.sh b/artifacts/scripts/construct.sh
index c0acaed9..cf4711a0 100755
--- a/artifacts/scripts/construct.sh
+++ b/artifacts/scripts/construct.sh
@@ -120,7 +120,7 @@ git fetch -q upstream --no-tags --prune

 # sync if upstream changed
 UPSTREAM_HASH=$(git rev-parse upstream/${SRC_BRANCH})
-if [ "${UPSTREAM_HASH}" != "${LAST_PUBLISHED_UPSTREAM_HASH}" ]; then
+if [ "${UPSTREAM_HASH}" != "${LAST_PUBLISHED_UPSTREAM_HASH}" ] || [ ! -d Godeps ]; then
     echo "Upstream branch upstream/${SRC_BRANCH} moved from '${LAST_PUBLISHED_UPSTREAM_HASH}' to '${UPSTREAM_HASH}'. We have to sync."
     # sync_repo cherry-picks the commits that change
     # k8s.io/kubernetes/staging/src/k8s.io/${REPO} to the ${DST_BRANCH}
diff --git a/artifacts/scripts/util.sh b/artifacts/scripts/util.sh
index e9e3d016..e73c5706 100755
--- a/artifacts/scripts/util.sh
+++ b/artifacts/scripts/util.sh
@@ -496,7 +496,7 @@ sync_repo() {
     # NOTE: we cannot skip collapsed-kube-commit-mapper below because its
     #       output depends on upstream's HEAD.
     echo "Fixing up godeps after a complete sync"
-    if [ $(git rev-parse HEAD) != "${dst_old_head}" ] || [ "${new_branch}" = "true" ]; then
+    if [ $(git rev-parse HEAD) != "${dst_old_head}" ] || [ "${new_branch}" = "true" ] || [ ! -d Godeps ]; then
         fix-godeps "${deps}" "${required_packages}" "${base_package}" "${is_library}" true true ${commit_msg_tag} "${recursive_delete_pattern}"
     else
         # update godeps without squashing because it would mutate a published commit