diff --git a/osu.Game/Database/LegacyBeatmapImporter.cs b/osu.Game/Database/LegacyBeatmapImporter.cs
index 97f6eba6c2..9ce267086d 100644
--- a/osu.Game/Database/LegacyBeatmapImporter.cs
+++ b/osu.Game/Database/LegacyBeatmapImporter.cs
@@ -1,6 +1,9 @@
 // Copyright (c) ppy Pty Ltd <contact@ppy.sh>. Licensed under the MIT Licence.
 // See the LICENCE file in the repository root for full licence text.
 
+using System.Collections.Generic;
+using System.Linq;
+using osu.Framework.IO.Stores;
 using osu.Framework.Platform;
 using osu.Game.Beatmaps;
 using osu.Game.IO;
@@ -13,6 +16,24 @@ namespace osu.Game.Database
 
         protected override Storage PrepareStableStorage(StableStorage stableStorage) => stableStorage.GetSongStorage();
 
+        protected override IEnumerable<string> GetStableImportPaths(Storage storage)
+        {
+            foreach (string beatmapDirectory in storage.GetDirectories(string.Empty))
+            {
+                var beatmapStorage = storage.GetStorageForDirectory(beatmapDirectory);
+
+                if (!beatmapStorage.GetFiles(string.Empty).ExcludeSystemFileNames().Any())
+                {
+                    // if a directory doesn't contain files, attempt looking for beatmaps inside of that directory.
+                    // this is a special behaviour in stable for beatmaps only, see https://github.com/ppy/osu/issues/18615.
+                    foreach (string beatmapInDirectory in GetStableImportPaths(beatmapStorage))
+                        yield return beatmapStorage.GetFullPath(beatmapInDirectory);
+                }
+                else
+                    yield return storage.GetFullPath(beatmapDirectory);
+            }
+        }
+
         public LegacyBeatmapImporter(IModelImporter<BeatmapSetInfo> importer)
             : base(importer)
         {