diff --git a/src/gui/attributetable/qgsattributetablemodel.cpp b/src/gui/attributetable/qgsattributetablemodel.cpp
index 7c61243ded3..a22024db18d 100644
--- a/src/gui/attributetable/qgsattributetablemodel.cpp
+++ b/src/gui/attributetable/qgsattributetablemodel.cpp
@@ -1053,9 +1053,13 @@ void QgsAttributeTableModel::prefetchSortData( const QString &expressionString,
     widgetData = getWidgetData( cache.sortFieldIndex );
   }
 
-  const QgsFeatureRequest request = QgsFeatureRequest( mFeatureRequest )
-                                    .setFlags( Qgis::FeatureRequestFlag::NoGeometry )
-                                    .setSubsetOfAttributes( cache.sortCacheAttributes );
+  QgsFeatureRequest request = QgsFeatureRequest( mFeatureRequest )
+                              .setSubsetOfAttributes( cache.sortCacheAttributes );
+
+  // If expression does not need geometry set NoGeometry flag
+  if ( !cache.sortCacheExpression.needsGeometry() )
+    request.setFlags( request.flags() | Qgis::FeatureRequestFlag::NoGeometry );
+
   QgsFeatureIterator it = mLayerCache->getFeatures( request );
 
   QgsFeature f;
@@ -1094,9 +1098,17 @@ QString QgsAttributeTableModel::sortCacheExpression( unsigned long cacheIndex )
 
 void QgsAttributeTableModel::setRequest( const QgsFeatureRequest &request )
 {
-  mFeatureRequest = request;
-  if ( mLayer && !mLayer->isSpatial() )
-    mFeatureRequest.setFlags( mFeatureRequest.flags() | Qgis::FeatureRequestFlag::NoGeometry );
+  if ( ! mFeatureRequest.compare( request ) )
+  {
+    mFeatureRequest = request;
+    if ( mLayer && !mLayer->isSpatial() )
+      mFeatureRequest.setFlags( mFeatureRequest.flags() | Qgis::FeatureRequestFlag::NoGeometry );
+    // Prefetch data for sorting, resetting all caches
+    for ( unsigned long i = 0; i < mSortCaches.size(); ++i )
+    {
+      prefetchSortData( sortCacheExpression( i ), i );
+    }
+  }
 }
 
 const QgsFeatureRequest &QgsAttributeTableModel::request() const
diff --git a/tests/src/python/test_qgsattributetablemodel.py b/tests/src/python/test_qgsattributetablemodel.py
index 641626ec981..7e771b3bffe 100644
--- a/tests/src/python/test_qgsattributetablemodel.py
+++ b/tests/src/python/test_qgsattributetablemodel.py
@@ -25,12 +25,13 @@ from qgis.core import (
     QgsGeometry,
     QgsMemoryProviderUtils,
     QgsPointXY,
+    QgsPoint,
     QgsProject,
     QgsVectorLayer,
     QgsVectorLayerCache,
     QgsVectorLayerExporter,
 )
-from qgis.gui import QgsAttributeTableModel, QgsEditorWidgetFactory, QgsGui
+from qgis.gui import QgsAttributeTableModel, QgsAttributeTableFilterModel, QgsEditorWidgetFactory, QgsGui
 import unittest
 from qgis.testing import start_app, QgisTestCase
 
@@ -401,6 +402,44 @@ class TestQgsAttributeTableModel(QgisTestCase):
         self.assertEqual(twf.widgetLoaded, 2)
         twf.widgetLoaded = 0
 
+    def test_sort_requires_geometry(self):
+        layer = QgsVectorLayer("Linestring?field=fldint:integer",
+                               "addfeat", "memory")
+        pr = layer.dataProvider()
+        features = list()
+        f = QgsFeature(layer.fields())
+        f.setAttributes([2])
+        f.setGeometry(QgsGeometry.fromPolyline([QgsPoint(0, 0), QgsPoint(1, 1)]))
+        features.append(f)
+
+        f = QgsFeature(layer.fields())
+        f.setAttributes([1])
+        f.setGeometry(QgsGeometry.fromPolyline([QgsPoint(0, 0), QgsPoint(2, 2)]))
+        features.append(f)
+
+        self.assertTrue(pr.addFeatures(features))
+        cache = QgsVectorLayerCache(layer, 100)
+        am = QgsAttributeTableModel(cache)
+        am.loadLayer()
+
+        fm = QgsAttributeTableFilterModel(None, am, am)
+
+        fm.sort('"fldint"', Qt.SortOrder.AscendingOrder)
+        self.assertEqual(fm.data(fm.index(0, 0), Qt.DisplayRole), '1')
+        self.assertEqual(fm.data(fm.index(1, 0), Qt.DisplayRole), '2')
+
+        fm.sort('"fldint"', Qt.SortOrder.DescendingOrder)
+        self.assertEqual(fm.data(fm.index(0, 0), Qt.DisplayRole), '2')
+        self.assertEqual(fm.data(fm.index(1, 0), Qt.DisplayRole), '1')
+
+        fm.sort('$length', Qt.SortOrder.DescendingOrder)
+        self.assertEqual(fm.data(fm.index(0, 0), Qt.DisplayRole), '1')
+        self.assertEqual(fm.data(fm.index(1, 0), Qt.DisplayRole), '2')
+
+        fm.sort('$length', Qt.SortOrder.AscendingOrder)
+        self.assertEqual(fm.data(fm.index(0, 0), Qt.DisplayRole), '2')
+        self.assertEqual(fm.data(fm.index(1, 0), Qt.DisplayRole), '1')
+
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':
     unittest.main()