diff --git a/.github/workflows/release.yml b/.github/workflows/release.yml
index 1763cbb..aacbf97 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release.yml
@@ -37,16 +37,19 @@ jobs:
     needs: [build-linux, build-windows, build-macos]
     runs-on: ubuntu-24.04
     steps:
-      - name: Download platform artifacts
-        uses: actions/download-artifact@v4
-        with:
-          path: artifacts
-
+      # Check out first: actions/checkout runs `git clean -fdx` on the
+      # workspace by default, which would delete the untracked artifacts/
+      # directory if it ran after the download.
       - name: Check out mpv-natives (for LICENSE-NOTICE.txt)
         uses: actions/checkout@v4
         with:
           fetch-depth: 1
 
+      - name: Download platform artifacts
+        uses: actions/download-artifact@v4
+        with:
+          path: artifacts
+
       - name: Assemble bare release assets
         run: |
           # The mpv version comes from each build workflow's top-level