diff --git a/cmd/aro/mirror.go b/cmd/aro/mirror.go
index 69399b0f5fa..5fcce768e28 100644
--- a/cmd/aro/mirror.go
+++ b/cmd/aro/mirror.go
@@ -124,7 +124,8 @@ func mirror(ctx context.Context, log *logrus.Entry) error {
 			srcAuth = srcAuthQuay
 		}
 
-		err = pkgmirror.Copy(ctx, pkgmirror.Dest(dstAcr+acrDomainSuffix, ref), ref, dstAuth, srcAuth)
+		// set expectAlreadyExists to false so that we update tags like :latest
+		err = pkgmirror.Copy(ctx, pkgmirror.Dest(dstAcr+acrDomainSuffix, ref), ref, dstAuth, srcAuth, false)
 		if err != nil {
 			imageMirroringErrors = append(imageMirroringErrors, fmt.Sprintf("%s: %s\n", ref, err))
 		}
diff --git a/pkg/mirror/mirror.go b/pkg/mirror/mirror.go
index 11e80ae80ac..88195067232 100644
--- a/pkg/mirror/mirror.go
+++ b/pkg/mirror/mirror.go
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ import (
 	"github.com/sirupsen/logrus"
 )
 
-func Copy(ctx context.Context, dstreference, srcreference string, dstauth, srcauth *types.DockerAuthConfig) error {
+func Copy(ctx context.Context, dstreference, srcreference string, dstauth, srcauth *types.DockerAuthConfig, expectAlreadyExists bool) error {
 	policyctx, err := signature.NewPolicyContext(&signature.Policy{
 		Default: signature.PolicyRequirements{
 			signature.NewPRInsecureAcceptAnything(),
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ func Copy(ctx context.Context, dstreference, srcreference string, dstauth, srcau
 		// optimisation that checks if the source and destination manifests are
 		// equal before attempting to push it (and sending no blobs because
 		// they're all already there)
-		OptimizeDestinationImageAlreadyExists: true,
+		OptimizeDestinationImageAlreadyExists: expectAlreadyExists,
 	})
 
 	return err
@@ -100,7 +100,7 @@ func Mirror(ctx context.Context, log *logrus.Entry, dstrepo, srcrelease string,
 				log.Printf("mirroring %s", w.tag)
 				var err error
 				for retry := 0; retry < 6; retry++ {
-					err = Copy(ctx, w.dstreference, w.srcreference, w.dstauth, w.srcauth)
+					err = Copy(ctx, w.dstreference, w.srcreference, w.dstauth, w.srcauth, true)
 					if err == nil {
 						break
 					}