diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index c8e269f14..14298b2b1 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,6 +1,11 @@
 
 # renv 1.1.0  (UNRELEASED)
 
+* Fixed an issue where R package installation could fail if the project
+  depended on a package whose current version available from the configured
+  package repositories required on a newer version of R than what was currently
+  installed, even if that package need not be updated. (#2071)
+
 * Fixed an issue where `RENV_CONFIG_EXTERNAL_LIBRARIES` was incorrectly
   split when using Windows paths. (#2069)
   
diff --git a/R/project.R b/R/project.R
index 8f4dd1ac4..dba05aec4 100644
--- a/R/project.R
+++ b/R/project.R
@@ -161,15 +161,19 @@ renv_project_remotes <- function(project, filter = NULL, resolve = FALSE) {
 
       # check for explicit version requirement
       explicit <- spec[spec$Require == "==", ]
-      if (nrow(explicit) == 0)
-        return(renv_remotes_resolve(package))
-
-      version <- spec$Version[[1]]
-      if (!nzchar(version))
-        return(renv_remotes_resolve(package))
+      if (nrow(explicit)) {
+        version <- explicit$Version[[1L]]
+        if (nzchar(version)) {
+          entry <- paste(package, version, sep = "@")
+          return(renv_remotes_resolve(entry))
+        }
+      }
 
-      entry <- paste(package, version, sep = "@")
-      renv_remotes_resolve(entry)
+      # check if we're being invoked during restore or install
+      # if so, we may want to re-use an already-existing package
+      # https://github.com/rstudio/renv/issues/2071
+      packages <- renv_restore_state(key = "packages")
+      renv_remotes_resolve(package, infer = !package %in% packages)
 
     }
 
diff --git a/R/remotes.R b/R/remotes.R
index d0d7dcb71..223cbeba1 100644
--- a/R/remotes.R
+++ b/R/remotes.R
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ remote <- function(spec) {
 
 # take a short-form remotes spec, parse that into a remote,
 # and generate a corresponding package record
-renv_remotes_resolve <- function(spec, latest = FALSE) {
+renv_remotes_resolve <- function(spec, latest = FALSE, infer = FALSE) {
 
   # check for already-resolved specs
   if (is.null(spec) || is.list(spec))
@@ -30,6 +30,15 @@ renv_remotes_resolve <- function(spec, latest = FALSE) {
   # https://github.com/rstudio/renv/issues/1135
   spec <- gsub("/+$", "", spec, perl = TRUE)
 
+  # check if we should infer the package version
+  infer <-
+    infer &&
+    grepl(renv_regexps_package_name(), spec) &&
+    renv_package_installed(spec)
+
+  if (infer)
+    spec <- paste(spec, renv_package_version(spec), sep = "@")
+
   # check for archive URLs -- this is a bit hacky
   if (grepl("^(?:file|https?)://", spec)) {
     for (suffix in c(".zip", ".tar.gz", ".tgz", "/tarball"))
diff --git a/R/retrieve.R b/R/retrieve.R
index e315316ed..83a0c0f9d 100644
--- a/R/retrieve.R
+++ b/R/retrieve.R
@@ -915,9 +915,15 @@ renv_retrieve_repos_archive <- function(record) {
     if (is.null(root))
       next
 
-    # attempt download
+    # attempt download; report errors via condition handler
     name <- renv_retrieve_repos_archive_name(record, type = "source")
     status <- catch(renv_retrieve_repos_impl(record, "source", name, root))
+    if (inherits(status, "error")) {
+      attr(status, "record") <- record
+      renv_condition_signal("renv.retrieve.error", entry)
+    }
+
+    # exit now if we had success
     if (identical(status, TRUE))
       return(TRUE)
 
diff --git a/tests/testthat/helper-aaa.R b/tests/testthat/helper-aaa.R
index 576a76154..bf4034769 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/helper-aaa.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/helper-aaa.R
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ teardown_env <- function() {
 }
 
 the$tests_repopath <- renv_scope_tempfile("renv-repos-", scope = teardown_env())
+
 renv_tests_repopath <- function() {
   the$tests_repopath
 }
diff --git a/tests/testthat/helper-setup.R b/tests/testthat/helper-setup.R
index 444ce3cd2..46a6f060c 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/helper-setup.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/helper-setup.R
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ renv_tests_setup_envvars <- function(scope = parent.frame()) {
   # set up sandbox directory
   sandbox <- file.path(root, "sandbox")
   ensure_directory(sandbox)
-  
+
   renv_scope_envvars(
     RENV_AUTOLOAD_ENABLED = FALSE,
     RENV_CONFIG_LOCKING_ENABLED = FALSE,
@@ -222,6 +222,7 @@ renv_tests_setup_repos <- function(scope = parent.frame()) {
     descpath <- file.path(path, "DESCRIPTION")
     desc <- renv_description_read(descpath)
     desc$Version <- "0.1.0"
+    desc$Depends <- gsub("99.99.99", "1.0.0", desc$Depends %||% "", fixed = TRUE)
     write.dcf(desc, file = descpath)
 
     # place these packages into the archive
diff --git a/tests/testthat/packages/future/DESCRIPTION b/tests/testthat/packages/future/DESCRIPTION
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..c84dec2f0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/testthat/packages/future/DESCRIPTION
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+Package: future
+Type: Package
+Version: 1.0.0
+Depends: today
+Repository: CRAN
+License: GPL
+Description: renv test package
+Title: renv test package
+Author: Anonymous Person <Anonymous@rstudio.org>
+Maintainer: Anonymous Person <Anonymous@rstudio.org>
diff --git a/tests/testthat/packages/today/DESCRIPTION b/tests/testthat/packages/today/DESCRIPTION
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..d980a5f14
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/testthat/packages/today/DESCRIPTION
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+Package: today
+Type: Package
+Version: 1.0.0
+Depends: R (>= 99.99.99)
+Repository: CRAN
+License: GPL
+Description: renv test package
+Title: renv test package
+Author: Anonymous Person <Anonymous@rstudio.org>
+Maintainer: Anonymous Person <Anonymous@rstudio.org>
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-install.R b/tests/testthat/test-install.R
index e88b33240..01f5690cf 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-install.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-install.R
@@ -371,7 +371,7 @@ test_that("packages embedded in the project use a project-local RemoteURL", {
   skip_if(is.null(usethis$create_package))
   renv_scope_options(usethis.quiet = TRUE)
   unlink("example", recursive = TRUE)
-  
+
   fields <- list(
     "Authors@R" = utils::person(
       "Kevin", "Ushey",
@@ -380,7 +380,7 @@ test_that("packages embedded in the project use a project-local RemoteURL", {
       comment = c(ORCID = "0000-0003-2880-7407")
     )
   )
-  
+
   usethis$create_package("example", fields = fields, rstudio = FALSE, open = FALSE)
 
   install("./example")
@@ -767,3 +767,28 @@ test_that("packages installed from r-universe preserve their remote metadata", {
   record <- renv_snapshot_description(package = "rlang")
   expect_true(is.character(record[["RemoteSha"]]))
 })
+
+# https://github.com/rstudio/renv/issues/2071
+test_that("irrelevant R version requirements don't prevent package installation", {
+
+  renv_tests_scope()
+  init()
+
+  # package in repository not compatible with this version of R
+  expect_error(install("today"))
+
+  # but older version can be successfully installed
+  install("today@0.1.0")
+  expect_true(renv_package_installed("today"))
+  expect_equal(renv_package_version("today"), "0.1.0")
+
+  # other packages can be installed even if this project depends on it
+  writeLines("Depends: future, today", con = "DESCRIPTION")
+  install("future")
+  expect_true(renv_package_installed("future"))
+  remove("future")
+
+  # but installing that package should still fail
+  expect_error(install("today"))
+
+})
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-repos.R b/tests/testthat/test-repos.R
index d7eb79b1f..b7f324f7c 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-repos.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-repos.R
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 test_that("we can query our local repository during tests", {
 
   expected <- list.files("packages")
-  drop <- if (.Platform$OS.type == "unix") "windowsonly" else "unixonly"
+  drop <- c("today", if (.Platform$OS.type == "unix") "windowsonly" else "unixonly")
   expected <- setdiff(expected, drop)
 
   renv_tests_scope()