diff --git a/pkg/minikube/cruntime/containerd.go b/pkg/minikube/cruntime/containerd.go
index 73df60d4c042..4cb0ad665966 100644
--- a/pkg/minikube/cruntime/containerd.go
+++ b/pkg/minikube/cruntime/containerd.go
@@ -265,7 +265,7 @@ func (r *Containerd) Disable() error {
 // ImageExists checks if image exists based on image name and optionally image sha
 func (r *Containerd) ImageExists(name string, sha string) bool {
 	klog.Infof("Checking existence of image with name %q and sha %q", name, sha)
-	c := exec.Command("sudo", "ctr", "-n=k8s.io", "images", "check")
+	c := exec.Command("sudo", "ctr", "-n=k8s.io", "images", "ls", fmt.Sprintf("name==%s", name))
 	// note: image name and image id's sha can be on different lines in ctr output
 	if rr, err := r.Runner.RunCmd(c); err != nil ||
 		!strings.Contains(rr.Output(), name) ||
diff --git a/pkg/minikube/cruntime/cri.go b/pkg/minikube/cruntime/cri.go
index fa3b2c1cb49c..3dfc50dec35f 100644
--- a/pkg/minikube/cruntime/cri.go
+++ b/pkg/minikube/cruntime/cri.go
@@ -220,10 +220,28 @@ func removeCRIImage(cr CommandRunner, name string) error {
 	crictl := getCrictlPath(cr)
 	args := append([]string{crictl, "rmi"}, name)
 	c := exec.Command("sudo", args...)
-	if _, err := cr.RunCmd(c); err != nil {
-		return errors.Wrap(err, "crictl")
+	var err error
+	if _, err = cr.RunCmd(c); err == nil {
+		return nil
 	}
-	return nil
+	// the reason why we are doing this is that
+	// unlike other tool, podman assume the image has a localhost registry (not docker.io)
+	// if the image is loaded with a tarball without a registry specified in tag
+	// see https://github.com/containers/podman/issues/15974
+
+	// then retry with dockerio prefix
+	if _, err := cr.RunCmd(exec.Command("sudo", crictl, "rmi", AddDockerIO(name))); err == nil {
+		return nil
+	}
+
+	// then retry with localhost prefix
+	if _, err := cr.RunCmd(exec.Command("sudo", crictl, "rmi", AddLocalhostPrefix(name))); err == nil {
+
+		return nil
+	}
+
+	// if all of above failed, return original error
+	return errors.Wrap(err, "crictl")
 }
 
 // stopCRIContainers stops containers using crictl
@@ -358,3 +376,8 @@ func checkCNIPlugins(kubernetesVersion semver.Version) error {
 	_, err := os.Stat("/opt/cni/bin")
 	return err
 }
+
+// Add localhost prefix if the registry part is missing
+func AddLocalhostPrefix(name string) string {
+	return addRegistryPreix(name, "localhost")
+}
diff --git a/pkg/minikube/cruntime/docker.go b/pkg/minikube/cruntime/docker.go
index c2bf1c7b7bdb..f22dc9738562 100644
--- a/pkg/minikube/cruntime/docker.go
+++ b/pkg/minikube/cruntime/docker.go
@@ -292,7 +292,7 @@ func (r *Docker) ListImages(ListImagesOptions) ([]ListImage, error) {
 		result = append(result, ListImage{
 			ID:          strings.TrimPrefix(jsonImage.ID, "sha256:"),
 			RepoDigests: []string{},
-			RepoTags:    []string{addDockerIO(repoTag)},
+			RepoTags:    []string{AddDockerIO(repoTag)},
 			Size:        fmt.Sprintf("%d", size),
 		})
 	}
@@ -696,14 +696,22 @@ func dockerImagesPreloaded(runner command.Runner, images []string) bool {
 }
 
 // Add docker.io prefix
-func addDockerIO(name string) string {
+func AddDockerIO(name string) string {
+	return addRegistryPreix(name, "docker.io")
+}
+func addRegistryPreix(name string, prefix string) string {
+	// we seperate the image name following this logic
+	// https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/distribution/reference#ParseNormalizedNamed
 	var reg, usr, img string
 	p := strings.SplitN(name, "/", 2)
-	if len(p) > 1 && strings.Contains(p[0], ".") {
+	// containing . means that it is a valid url for registry(e.g. xxx.io)
+	// containing : means it contains some port number (e.g. xxx:5432)
+	// it may also start with localhost, which is also regarded as a valid registry
+	if len(p) > 1 && (strings.ContainsAny(p[0], ".:") || strings.Contains(p[0], "localhost")) {
 		reg = p[0]
 		img = p[1]
 	} else {
-		reg = "docker.io"
+		reg = prefix
 		img = name
 		p = strings.SplitN(img, "/", 2)
 		if len(p) > 1 {
diff --git a/pkg/minikube/image/image.go b/pkg/minikube/image/image.go
index 0db355616488..b567036c63b5 100644
--- a/pkg/minikube/image/image.go
+++ b/pkg/minikube/image/image.go
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ package image
 import (
 	"context"
 	"fmt"
+	"io"
 	"os"
 	"path/filepath"
 	"runtime"
@@ -207,7 +208,24 @@ func UploadCachedImage(imgName string) error {
 		klog.Infof("error parsing image name %s tag %v ", imgName, err)
 		return err
 	}
-	return uploadImage(tag, imagePathInCache(imgName))
+	if err := uploadImage(tag, imagePathInCache(imgName)); err != nil {
+		// this time try determine image tags from tarball
+
+		manifest, err := tarball.LoadManifest(func() (io.ReadCloser, error) {
+			return os.Open(imagePathInCache(imgName))
+		})
+		if err != nil || len(manifest) == 0 || len(manifest[0].RepoTags) == 0 {
+			return fmt.Errorf("failed to determine the image tag from tarball, err: %v", err)
+		}
+
+		tag, err = name.NewTag(manifest[0].RepoTags[0], name.WeakValidation)
+		if err != nil {
+			klog.Infof("error parsing image name: %s ", err.Error())
+			return err
+		}
+		return uploadImage(tag, imagePathInCache(imgName))
+	}
+	return nil
 }
 
 func uploadImage(tag name.Tag, p string) error {
diff --git a/pkg/minikube/machine/cache_images.go b/pkg/minikube/machine/cache_images.go
index 4aab4766574c..2e0c6be38002 100644
--- a/pkg/minikube/machine/cache_images.go
+++ b/pkg/minikube/machine/cache_images.go
@@ -335,7 +335,7 @@ func removeExistingImage(r cruntime.Manager, src string, imgName string) error {
 	}
 
 	errStr := strings.ToLower(err.Error())
-	if !strings.Contains(errStr, "no such image") {
+	if !strings.Contains(errStr, "no such image") && !strings.Contains(errStr, "unable to remove the image") {
 		return errors.Wrap(err, "removing image")
 	}
 
@@ -472,9 +472,22 @@ func transferAndSaveImage(cr command.Runner, k8s config.KubernetesConfig, dst st
 	if err != nil {
 		return errors.Wrap(err, "runtime")
 	}
+	found := false
+	// the reason why we are doing this is that
+	// unlike other tool, podman assume the image has a localhost registry (not docker.io)
+	// if the image is loaded with a tarball without a registry specified in tag
+	// see https://github.com/containers/podman/issues/15974
+	tryImageExist := []string{imgName, cruntime.AddDockerIO(imgName), cruntime.AddLocalhostPrefix(imgName)}
+	for _, imgName = range tryImageExist {
+		if r.ImageExists(imgName, "") {
+			found = true
+			break
+		}
+	}
 
-	if !r.ImageExists(imgName, "") {
-		return errors.Errorf("image %s not found", imgName)
+	if !found {
+		// if all of this failed, return the original error
+		return fmt.Errorf("image not found %s", imgName)
 	}
 
 	klog.Infof("Saving image to: %s", dst)
diff --git a/test/integration/functional_test.go b/test/integration/functional_test.go
index 8d08e5770280..3792a8073344 100644
--- a/test/integration/functional_test.go
+++ b/test/integration/functional_test.go
@@ -55,9 +55,10 @@ import (
 	"github.com/phayes/freeport"
 	"github.com/pkg/errors"
 	"golang.org/x/build/kubernetes/api"
+	"k8s.io/minikube/pkg/minikube/cruntime"
 )
 
-const echoServerImg = "docker.io/kicbase/echo-server"
+const echoServerImg = "kicbase/echo-server"
 
 // validateFunc are for subtests that share a single setup
 type validateFunc func(context.Context, *testing.T, string)
@@ -424,8 +425,11 @@ func validateImageCommands(ctx context.Context, t *testing.T, profile string) {
 		if err != nil {
 			t.Fatalf("saving image from minikube to daemon: %v\n%s", err, rr.Output())
 		}
-
-		rr, err = Run(t, exec.CommandContext(ctx, "docker", "image", "inspect", taggedImage))
+		imageToDelete := taggedImage
+		if ContainerRuntime() == "crio" {
+			imageToDelete = cruntime.AddLocalhostPrefix(imageToDelete)
+		}
+		rr, err = Run(t, exec.CommandContext(ctx, "docker", "image", "inspect", imageToDelete))
 		if err != nil {
 			t.Fatalf("expected image to be loaded into Docker, but image was not found: %v\n%s", err, rr.Output())
 		}