diff --git a/.github/scripts/file_io_utils.py b/.github/scripts/file_io_utils.py
index f537d3674c3d..f2ab0499ee34 100644
--- a/.github/scripts/file_io_utils.py
+++ b/.github/scripts/file_io_utils.py
@@ -84,4 +84,7 @@ def download_s3_objects_with_prefix(bucket, prefix, download_folder):
         downloads.append(download_path)
         print("done")
 
+    if len(downloads) == 0:
+        print(f"There were no files matching the prefix `{prefix}` in bucket `{bucket.name}`")
+
     return downloads
diff --git a/.github/scripts/pytest_caching_utils.py b/.github/scripts/pytest_caching_utils.py
index adf4f8efc91d..04f7f0e494c1 100644
--- a/.github/scripts/pytest_caching_utils.py
+++ b/.github/scripts/pytest_caching_utils.py
@@ -22,10 +22,11 @@
 
 # create a custom string type to be used as pr identifiers to know we've gotten the right one
 class PRIdentifier(str):
-    def __init__(self, value):
+    def __new__(cls, value):
         # Since the pr identifier can be based on include user defined text (like a branch name)
         # we hash it to get a clean input and dodge corner cases
-        self.value = hashlib.md5(value.encode()).hexdigest()
+        md5 = hashlib.md5(value.encode('utf-8')).hexdigest()
+        return super().__new__(cls, md5)
 
 
 def get_s3_key_prefix(
@@ -139,16 +140,6 @@ def download_pytest_cache(
         # shutil.rmtree(zip_download_dir)  suppress deletes while testing
         pass
 
-def unzip_cache_folder(zip_file_path, dest_dir):
-    # the file name of the zip is the shard id
-    shard_id = os.path.splitext(os.path.basename(zip_file_path))[0]
-    cache_dir_for_shard = os.path.join(
-        dest_dir,
-        get_s3_key_prefix(pr_identifier, workflow, job, shard_id),
-        PYTEST_CACHE_DIR_NAME,
-    )
-
-    unzip_folder(downloaded_zip, cache_dir_for_shard)
 
 def copy_file(source_file, dest_file):
     ensure_dir_exists(os.path.dirname(dest_file))
diff --git a/.github/workflows/_linux-test.yml b/.github/workflows/_linux-test.yml
index 3e0313ff60d5..08951028ad6c 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/_linux-test.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/_linux-test.yml
@@ -115,11 +115,11 @@ jobs:
           github-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
           test-matrix: ${{ inputs.test-matrix }}
 
-      # - name: Download pytest cache
-      #   uses: ./.github/actions/pytest-cache-download
-      #   with:
-          # github-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
-      #     cache_dir: ${GITHUB_WORKSPACE}/.pytest_cache
+      - name: Download pytest cache
+        uses: ./.github/actions/pytest-cache-download
+        with:
+          github-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
+          cache_dir: .pytest_cache
 
       - name: Set Test step time
         id: test-timeout