diff --git a/src/borg/chunkers/reader.pyx b/src/borg/chunkers/reader.pyx
index 2a45e55ca..d33917a3a 100644
--- a/src/borg/chunkers/reader.pyx
+++ b/src/borg/chunkers/reader.pyx
@@ -137,7 +137,7 @@ class FileFMAPReader:
         if self.try_sparse:
             try:
                 fmap = list(sparsemap(self.fd, self.fh))
-            except OSError as err:
+            except (OSError, ValueError) as err:
                 # seeking did not work
                 pass
 
@@ -170,6 +170,9 @@ class FileFMAPReader:
                     # read block from the range
                     data = dread(offset, wanted, self.fd, self.fh)
                     got = len(data)
+                    # Detect zero-filled blocks regardless of sparse mode.
+                    # Zero detection is important to avoid reading/storing allocated zeros
+                    # even when we are not using sparse file handling based on SEEK_HOLE/SEEK_DATA.
                     if zeros.startswith(data):
                         data = None
                         allocation = CH_ALLOC
diff --git a/src/borg/testsuite/chunkers/fixed_test.py b/src/borg/testsuite/chunkers/fixed_test.py
index b8598a926..8fac894f1 100644
--- a/src/borg/testsuite/chunkers/fixed_test.py
+++ b/src/borg/testsuite/chunkers/fixed_test.py
@@ -40,7 +40,40 @@ def test_chunkify_sparse(tmpdir, fname, sparse_map, header_size, sparse):
 
     fn = str(tmpdir / fname)
     make_sparsefile(fn, sparse_map, header_size=header_size)
-    get_chunks(fn, sparse=sparse, header_size=header_size) == make_content(sparse_map, header_size=header_size)
+    expected_content = make_content(sparse_map, header_size=header_size)
+
+    # ChunkerFixed splits everything into fixed-size chunks (except maybe the header)
+    # We need to split the expected content similarly.
+    expected = []
+
+    # Handle header if present (it's the first item if header_size > 0)
+    if header_size > 0:
+        header = expected_content.pop(0)
+        expected.append(header)
+
+    # Flatten the rest and split into 4096 chunks
+    current_chunk_size = 4096
+    for item in expected_content:
+        if isinstance(item, int):
+            # Hole
+            count = item
+            while count > 0:
+                size = min(count, current_chunk_size)
+                expected.append(size)
+                count -= size
+        else:
+            # Data
+            data = item
+            while len(data) > 0:
+                size = min(len(data), current_chunk_size)
+                expected.append(data[:size])
+                data = data[size:]
+
+    if not sparse:
+        # if the chunker is not sparse-aware, it will read holes as zeros
+        expected = [b"\0" * x if isinstance(x, int) else x for x in expected]
+
+    assert get_chunks(fn, sparse=sparse, header_size=header_size) == expected
 
 
 @pytest.mark.skipif("BORG_TESTS_SLOW" not in os.environ, reason="slow tests not enabled, use BORG_TESTS_SLOW=1")
diff --git a/src/borg/testsuite/chunkers/interaction_test.py b/src/borg/testsuite/chunkers/interaction_test.py
index 45c175299..4417dc423 100644
--- a/src/borg/testsuite/chunkers/interaction_test.py
+++ b/src/borg/testsuite/chunkers/interaction_test.py
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ def test_reader_chunker_interaction(chunker_params):
     random_data = os.urandom(data_size // 3) + b"\0" * (data_size // 3) + os.urandom(data_size // 3)
 
     # Chunk the data
-    chunker = get_chunker(*chunker_params)
+    chunker = get_chunker(*chunker_params, sparse=True)
     data_file = BytesIO(random_data)
     chunks = list(chunker.chunkify(data_file))
 
diff --git a/src/borg/testsuite/chunkers/reader_test.py b/src/borg/testsuite/chunkers/reader_test.py
index ff56350ee..f269d95cb 100644
--- a/src/borg/testsuite/chunkers/reader_test.py
+++ b/src/borg/testsuite/chunkers/reader_test.py
@@ -170,7 +170,7 @@ def test_filereader_read_with_mock(mock_chunks, read_size, expected_data, expect
 )
 def test_filefmapreader_basic(file_content, read_size, expected_chunks):
     """Test basic functionality of FileFMAPReader with different file contents."""
-    reader = FileFMAPReader(fd=BytesIO(file_content), fh=-1, read_size=read_size, sparse=False, fmap=None)
+    reader = FileFMAPReader(fd=BytesIO(file_content), fh=-1, read_size=read_size, sparse=True, fmap=None)
 
     # Collect all chunks from blockify
     chunks = list(reader.blockify())
@@ -252,7 +252,7 @@ def test_filefmapreader_allocation_types(zeros_length, read_size, expected_alloc
     # Create a file with all zeros
     file_content = b"\0" * zeros_length
 
-    reader = FileFMAPReader(fd=BytesIO(file_content), fh=-1, read_size=read_size, sparse=False, fmap=None)
+    reader = FileFMAPReader(fd=BytesIO(file_content), fh=-1, read_size=read_size, sparse=True, fmap=None)
 
     # Collect all chunks from blockify
     chunks = list(reader.blockify())