diff --git a/crates/polars-io/src/cloud/glob.rs b/crates/polars-io/src/cloud/glob.rs
index 4d40f31c9d65..b61ac58baa0a 100644
--- a/crates/polars-io/src/cloud/glob.rs
+++ b/crates/polars-io/src/cloud/glob.rs
@@ -164,7 +164,6 @@ impl Matcher {
     }
 }
 
-#[tokio::main(flavor = "current_thread")]
 /// List files with a prefix derived from the pattern.
 pub async fn glob(url: &str, cloud_options: Option<&CloudOptions>) -> PolarsResult<Vec<String>> {
     // Find the fixed prefix, up to the first '*'.
@@ -178,16 +177,25 @@ pub async fn glob(url: &str, cloud_options: Option<&CloudOptions>) -> PolarsResu
         },
         store,
     ) = super::build_object_store(url, cloud_options).await?;
-    let matcher = Matcher::new(prefix.clone(), expansion.as_deref())?;
+    let matcher = Matcher::new(
+        if scheme == "file" {
+            // For local paths the returned location has the leading slash stripped.
+            prefix[1..].to_string()
+        } else {
+            prefix.clone()
+        },
+        expansion.as_deref(),
+    )?;
 
     let list_stream = store
         .list(Some(&Path::from(prefix)))
         .map_err(to_compute_err);
-    let locations: Vec<Path> = list_stream
+    let mut locations: Vec<Path> = list_stream
         .then(|entry| async { Ok::<_, PolarsError>(entry.map_err(to_compute_err)?.location) })
         .filter(|name| ready(name.as_ref().map_or(true, |name| matcher.is_matching(name))))
         .try_collect()
         .await?;
+    locations.sort_unstable();
     Ok(locations
         .into_iter()
         .map(|l| full_url(&scheme, &bucket, l))
diff --git a/crates/polars-lazy/src/scan/csv.rs b/crates/polars-lazy/src/scan/csv.rs
index 5d7cc53f7b7e..5ffb79fd1c63 100644
--- a/crates/polars-lazy/src/scan/csv.rs
+++ b/crates/polars-lazy/src/scan/csv.rs
@@ -332,4 +332,9 @@ impl LazyFileListReader for LazyCsvReader {
         };
         concat_impl(&lfs, args)
     }
+
+    /// [CloudOptions] used to list files.
+    fn cloud_options(&self) -> Option<&CloudOptions> {
+        self.cloud_options.as_ref()
+    }
 }
diff --git a/crates/polars-lazy/src/scan/file_list_reader.rs b/crates/polars-lazy/src/scan/file_list_reader.rs
index cbde453987d9..904716a371b4 100644
--- a/crates/polars-lazy/src/scan/file_list_reader.rs
+++ b/crates/polars-lazy/src/scan/file_list_reader.rs
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 use std::collections::VecDeque;
 use std::path::PathBuf;
 
+use polars_core::config;
 use polars_core::error::to_compute_err;
 use polars_core::prelude::*;
 use polars_io::cloud::CloudOptions;
@@ -51,48 +52,117 @@ fn expand_paths(
         }
     };
 
-    if is_cloud {
+    if is_cloud || { cfg!(not(target_family = "windows")) && config::force_async() } {
         #[cfg(feature = "async")]
         {
-            use polars_io::cloud::{CloudLocation, PolarsObjectStore};
+            let format_path = |scheme: &str, bucket: &str, location: &str| {
+                if is_cloud {
+                    format!("{}://{}/{}", scheme, bucket, location)
+                } else {
+                    format!("/{}", location)
+                }
+            };
 
-            fn is_file_cloud(
-                path: &str,
-                cloud_options: Option<&CloudOptions>,
-            ) -> PolarsResult<bool> {
+            let expand_path_cloud = |path: &str,
+                                     cloud_options: Option<&CloudOptions>|
+             -> PolarsResult<(usize, Vec<PathBuf>)> {
                 polars_io::pl_async::get_runtime().block_on_potential_spawn(async {
-                    let (CloudLocation { prefix, .. }, store) =
+                    let (cloud_location, store) =
                         polars_io::cloud::build_object_store(path, cloud_options).await?;
-                    let store = PolarsObjectStore::new(store);
-                    PolarsResult::Ok(store.head(&prefix.into()).await.is_ok())
+
+                    let prefix = cloud_location.prefix.clone().into();
+
+                    let out = if !path.ends_with("/")
+                        && cloud_location.expansion.is_none()
+                        && store.head(&prefix).await.is_ok()
+                    {
+                        (
+                            0,
+                            vec![PathBuf::from(format_path(
+                                &cloud_location.scheme,
+                                &cloud_location.bucket,
+                                &cloud_location.prefix,
+                            ))],
+                        )
+                    } else {
+                        use futures::{StreamExt, TryStreamExt};
+
+                        if !is_cloud {
+                            // FORCE_ASYNC in the test suite wants us to raise a proper error message
+                            // for non-existent file paths. Note we can't do this for cloud paths as
+                            // there is no concept of a "directory" - a non-existent path is
+                            // indistinguishable from an empty directory.
+                            let path = PathBuf::from(path);
+                            if !path.is_dir() {
+                                path.metadata().map_err(|err| {
+                                    let msg =
+                                        Some(format!("{}: {}", err, path.to_str().unwrap()).into());
+                                    PolarsError::IO {
+                                        error: err.into(),
+                                        msg,
+                                    }
+                                })?;
+                            }
+                        }
+
+                        let mut paths = store
+                            .list(Some(&prefix))
+                            .map(|x| {
+                                x.map(|x| {
+                                    PathBuf::from({
+                                        format_path(
+                                            &cloud_location.scheme,
+                                            &cloud_location.bucket,
+                                            x.location.as_ref(),
+                                        )
+                                    })
+                                })
+                            })
+                            .try_collect::<Vec<_>>()
+                            .await
+                            .map_err(to_compute_err)?;
+
+                        paths.sort_unstable();
+                        (
+                            format_path(
+                                &cloud_location.scheme,
+                                &cloud_location.bucket,
+                                &cloud_location.prefix,
+                            )
+                            .len(),
+                            paths,
+                        )
+                    };
+
+                    PolarsResult::Ok(out)
                 })
-            }
+            };
 
             for (path_idx, path) in paths.iter().enumerate() {
                 let glob_start_idx = get_glob_start_idx(path.to_str().unwrap().as_bytes());
 
                 let path = if glob_start_idx.is_some() {
                     path.clone()
-                } else if !path.ends_with("/")
-                    && is_file_cloud(path.to_str().unwrap(), cloud_options)?
-                {
-                    update_expand_start_idx(0, path_idx)?;
-                    out_paths.push(path.clone());
-                    continue;
-                } else if !glob {
-                    polars_bail!(ComputeError: "not implemented: did not find cloud file at path = {} and `glob` was set to false", path.to_str().unwrap());
                 } else {
-                    // FIXME: This will fail! See https://github.com/pola-rs/polars/issues/17105
-                    path.join("**/*")
+                    let (expand_start_idx, paths) =
+                        expand_path_cloud(path.to_str().unwrap(), cloud_options)?;
+                    out_paths.extend_from_slice(&paths);
+                    update_expand_start_idx(expand_start_idx, path_idx)?;
+                    continue;
                 };
 
                 update_expand_start_idx(0, path_idx)?;
 
-                out_paths.extend(
-                    polars_io::async_glob(path.to_str().unwrap(), cloud_options)?
-                        .into_iter()
-                        .map(PathBuf::from),
-                );
+                let iter = polars_io::pl_async::get_runtime().block_on_potential_spawn(
+                    polars_io::async_glob(path.to_str().unwrap(), cloud_options),
+                )?;
+
+                if is_cloud {
+                    out_paths.extend(iter.into_iter().map(PathBuf::from));
+                } else {
+                    // FORCE_ASYNC, remove leading file:// as not all readers support it.
+                    out_paths.extend(iter.iter().map(|x| &x[7..]).map(PathBuf::from))
+                }
             }
         }
         #[cfg(not(feature = "async"))]
@@ -141,7 +211,10 @@ fn expand_paths(
                 };
 
                 for path in paths {
-                    out_paths.push(path.map_err(to_compute_err)?);
+                    let path = path.map_err(to_compute_err)?;
+                    if !path.is_dir() {
+                        out_paths.push(path);
+                    }
                 }
             } else {
                 update_expand_start_idx(0, path_idx)?;
diff --git a/crates/polars-lazy/src/scan/ipc.rs b/crates/polars-lazy/src/scan/ipc.rs
index eb3069e0de82..41a5b7b066de 100644
--- a/crates/polars-lazy/src/scan/ipc.rs
+++ b/crates/polars-lazy/src/scan/ipc.rs
@@ -109,6 +109,11 @@ impl LazyFileListReader for LazyIpcReader {
     fn row_index(&self) -> Option<&RowIndex> {
         self.args.row_index.as_ref()
     }
+
+    /// [CloudOptions] used to list files.
+    fn cloud_options(&self) -> Option<&CloudOptions> {
+        self.args.cloud_options.as_ref()
+    }
 }
 
 impl LazyFrame {
diff --git a/crates/polars-lazy/src/scan/parquet.rs b/crates/polars-lazy/src/scan/parquet.rs
index b1afe34f90fe..c4c503539784 100644
--- a/crates/polars-lazy/src/scan/parquet.rs
+++ b/crates/polars-lazy/src/scan/parquet.rs
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ use std::path::{Path, PathBuf};
 use polars_core::prelude::*;
 use polars_io::cloud::CloudOptions;
 use polars_io::parquet::read::ParallelStrategy;
+use polars_io::utils::is_cloud_url;
 use polars_io::{HiveOptions, RowIndex};
 
 use crate::prelude::*;
@@ -65,7 +66,10 @@ impl LazyFileListReader for LazyParquetReader {
                 self.paths.len() == 1
                     && get_glob_start_idx(self.paths[0].to_str().unwrap().as_bytes()).is_none()
                     && !paths.is_empty()
-                    && paths[0] != self.paths[0]
+                    && {
+                        (!is_cloud_url(&paths[0]) && paths[0].is_dir())
+                            || (paths[0] != self.paths[0])
+                    }
             }));
         self.args.hive_options.hive_start_idx = hive_start_idx;
 
diff --git a/crates/polars-mem-engine/src/executors/scan/ipc.rs b/crates/polars-mem-engine/src/executors/scan/ipc.rs
index eaafe10b8c9b..a1a449afdefc 100644
--- a/crates/polars-mem-engine/src/executors/scan/ipc.rs
+++ b/crates/polars-mem-engine/src/executors/scan/ipc.rs
@@ -25,7 +25,9 @@ pub struct IpcExec {
 impl IpcExec {
     fn read(&mut self, verbose: bool) -> PolarsResult<DataFrame> {
         let is_cloud = self.paths.iter().any(is_cloud_url);
-        let mut out = if is_cloud || config::force_async() {
+        let force_async = config::force_async();
+
+        let mut out = if is_cloud || force_async {
             #[cfg(not(feature = "cloud"))]
             {
                 panic!("activate cloud feature")
@@ -33,7 +35,7 @@ impl IpcExec {
 
             #[cfg(feature = "cloud")]
             {
-                if !is_cloud && verbose {
+                if force_async && verbose {
                     eprintln!("ASYNC READING FORCED");
                 }
 
diff --git a/crates/polars-mem-engine/src/executors/scan/parquet.rs b/crates/polars-mem-engine/src/executors/scan/parquet.rs
index 30c2a5a1fc27..89acc3de4fc7 100644
--- a/crates/polars-mem-engine/src/executors/scan/parquet.rs
+++ b/crates/polars-mem-engine/src/executors/scan/parquet.rs
@@ -338,7 +338,7 @@ impl ParquetExec {
 
             #[cfg(feature = "cloud")]
             {
-                if !is_cloud && config::verbose() {
+                if force_async && config::verbose() {
                     eprintln!("ASYNC READING FORCED");
                 }
 
diff --git a/py-polars/tests/unit/conftest.py b/py-polars/tests/unit/conftest.py
index f5f848ef4573..828ad87684cb 100644
--- a/py-polars/tests/unit/conftest.py
+++ b/py-polars/tests/unit/conftest.py
@@ -212,6 +212,9 @@ def memory_usage_without_pyarrow() -> Generator[MemoryUsage, Any, Any]:
     if not pl.build_info()["compiler"]["debug"]:
         pytest.skip("Memory usage only available in debug/dev builds.")
 
+    if os.getenv("POLARS_FORCE_ASYNC", "0") == "1":
+        pytest.skip("Hangs when combined with async glob")
+
     if sys.platform == "win32":
         # abi3 wheels don't have the tracemalloc C APIs, which breaks linking
         # on Windows.
diff --git a/py-polars/tests/unit/io/test_scan.py b/py-polars/tests/unit/io/test_scan.py
index 701ebebc1417..e3966a2ca8d1 100644
--- a/py-polars/tests/unit/io/test_scan.py
+++ b/py-polars/tests/unit/io/test_scan.py
@@ -471,3 +471,21 @@ def test_scan_directory(
 
     out = scan(tmp_path).collect()
     assert_frame_equal(out, df)
+
+
+def test_scan_glob_excludes_directories(tmp_path: Path) -> None:
+    for dir in ["dir1", "dir2", "dir3"]:
+        (tmp_path / dir).mkdir()
+
+    df = pl.DataFrame({"a": [1, 2, 3]})
+
+    df.write_parquet(tmp_path / "dir1/data.bin")
+    df.write_parquet(tmp_path / "dir2/data.parquet")
+    df.write_parquet(tmp_path / "data.parquet")
+
+    assert_frame_equal(pl.scan_parquet(tmp_path / "**/*.bin").collect(), df)
+    assert_frame_equal(pl.scan_parquet(tmp_path / "**/data*.bin").collect(), df)
+    assert_frame_equal(
+        pl.scan_parquet(tmp_path / "**/*").collect(), pl.concat(3 * [df])
+    )
+    assert_frame_equal(pl.scan_parquet(tmp_path / "*").collect(), df)