Unknown initial conditions can affect the identified accuracy of dynamic forces. Direct measurement of initial conditions is relatively difficult. This study proposes a sparse regularization–based method for identifying forces considering influences of unknown initial conditions. The initial conditions are embedded in a classical governing equation of force identification. The key idea is to introduce a concept of concomitant mapping matrix for reasonably expressing the initial conditions. First, a dictionary is introduced for expanding the dynamic forces. Then, the concomitant mapping matrix is formulated by using free vibrating responses, which correspond to structural responses happening after the structure is subjected to each atom of the force dictionary. A sparse regularization strategy is applied for solving the ill-conditioned equation. After that, the problem of force identification is converted into an optimization problem, and it can be solved by using a one-step strategy. Numerical simulations are carried out for verifying the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method. Illustrated results clearly show the applicability and robustness of the proposed method for dealing with force reconstruction and moving force identification.