diff --git a/HISTORY.rst b/HISTORY.rst
index 786634ae..6869230c 100644
--- a/HISTORY.rst
+++ b/HISTORY.rst
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@ PlatformIO Core 6
 * Resolved an issue where the incorrect debugging environment was generated for VSCode in "Auto" mode (`issue #4597 <https://github.com/platformio/platformio-core/issues/4597>`_)
 * Resolved an issue where native tests would fail if a custom program name was specified (`issue #4546 <https://github.com/platformio/platformio-core/issues/4546>`_)
 * Resolved an issue where the PlatformIO |DEBUGGING| solution was not escaping the tool installation process into MI2 correctly (`issue #4565 <https://github.com/platformio/platformio-core/issues/4565>`_)
+* Resolved an issue where multiple targets were not executed sequentially (`issue #4604 <https://github.com/platformio/platformio-core/issues/4604>`_)
 
 6.1.6 (2023-01-23)
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
diff --git a/platformio/builder/main.py b/platformio/builder/main.py
index e3932be5..86702783 100644
--- a/platformio/builder/main.py
+++ b/platformio/builder/main.py
@@ -250,3 +250,9 @@ if "sizedata" in COMMAND_LINE_TARGETS:
     )
 
     Default("sizedata")
+
+# issue #4604: process targets sequentially
+for index, target in enumerate(
+    [t for t in COMMAND_LINE_TARGETS if not t.startswith("__")][1:]
+):
+    env.Depends(target, COMMAND_LINE_TARGETS[index])
diff --git a/platformio/platform/_run.py b/platformio/platform/_run.py
index 4fc41f9c..dfd7c406 100644
--- a/platformio/platform/_run.py
+++ b/platformio/platform/_run.py
@@ -93,6 +93,9 @@ class PlatformRunMixin:
         args.append("PIOVERBOSE=%d" % int(self.verbose))
         # pylint: disable=protected-access
         args.append("ISATTY=%d" % int(click._compat.isatty(sys.stdout)))
+        # encode and append variables
+        for key, value in variables.items():
+            args.append("%s=%s" % (key.upper(), self.encode_scons_arg(value)))
 
         if set(KNOWN_CLEAN_TARGETS + KNOWN_FULLCLEAN_TARGETS) & set(targets):
             args.append("--clean")
@@ -103,10 +106,6 @@ class PlatformRunMixin:
         elif targets:
             args.extend(targets)
 
-        # encode and append variables
-        for key, value in variables.items():
-            args.append("%s=%s" % (key.upper(), self.encode_scons_arg(value)))
-
         # force SCons output to Unicode
         os.environ["PYTHONIOENCODING"] = "utf-8"
 
diff --git a/platformio/run/processor.py b/platformio/run/processor.py
index 3d427a1b..329c4bf6 100644
--- a/platformio/run/processor.py
+++ b/platformio/run/processor.py
@@ -68,7 +68,7 @@ class EnvironmentProcessor:
 
         build_vars = self.get_build_variables()
         is_clean = set(KNOWN_ALLCLEAN_TARGETS) & set(self.targets)
-        build_targets = list(set(self.targets) - set(KNOWN_ALLCLEAN_TARGETS))
+        build_targets = [t for t in self.targets if t not in KNOWN_ALLCLEAN_TARGETS]
 
         # pre-clean
         if is_clean: