diff --git a/roles/distgit/templates/lookaside.conf b/roles/distgit/templates/lookaside.conf
index 84099b52dc..b0d1c28b1c 100644
--- a/roles/distgit/templates/lookaside.conf
+++ b/roles/distgit/templates/lookaside.conf
@@ -3,11 +3,16 @@ Alias /lookaside        /srv/cache/lookaside
     Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
     AllowOverride None
     Require all granted
+
 {% if env == 'staging' %}
-    # Disable global mod_deflate for lookaside cache 
-    # to prevent double-compression and false gzip headers
-    SetEnv no-gzip 1
-    SetEnv dont-vary 1
+    # Disable mod_mime's automatic Content-Encoding for archives
+    RemoveEncoding .gz .tgz .bz2 .xz .zst .lzma .crate
+    
+    # Force all lookaside files to be served as generic binary data.
+    # This prevents mod_mime_magic from sniffing .crate files and adding x-gzip encoding.
+    ForceType application/octet-stream
+    
+    # Explicitly remove Content-Encoding just to be absolutely sure
+    Header unset Content-Encoding
 {% endif %}
 </Directory>
-