diff --git a/lib/services/systemd.c b/lib/services/systemd.c
index b64a9642ea3..ea8599c2c4f 100644
--- a/lib/services/systemd.c
+++ b/lib/services/systemd.c
@@ -918,10 +918,18 @@ unit_method_complete(DBusPendingCall *pending, void *user_data)
     CRM_LOG_ASSERT(pending == op->opaque->pending);
     services_set_op_pending(op, NULL);
 
-    /* Determine result and finalize action.  Start actions must be finalized
-     * by the registered systemd callback (for instance, handle_systemd_job_complete
-     * in the executor) to allow for some place to react to the finished
-     * action before finalizing it and cleaning it up.
+    /* Determine result and finalize action.
+     *
+     * Start and stop actions must be finalized by the registered systemd
+     * callback (for instance, handle_systemd_job_complete() in the executor) to
+     * allow for some place to react to the finished action before finalizing it
+     * and cleaning it up.
+     *
+     * HOWEVER, if the operation failed with NOT_INSTALLED, we need to finalize
+     * it right now too. We'll never receive a JobRemoved() signal for that
+     * case, so the callback will never be called. Additionally since we set up
+     * an override file, LoadUnit will always succeed so we can't finalize based
+     * on that failing. We have to do this here.
      */
     process_unit_method_reply(reply, op);
 
@@ -929,8 +937,9 @@ unit_method_complete(DBusPendingCall *pending, void *user_data)
         dbus_message_unref(reply);
     }
 
-    if (pcmk__strcase_any_of(op->action, PCMK_ACTION_START, PCMK_ACTION_STOP,
-                             NULL)) {
+    if ((op->status != PCMK_EXEC_NOT_INSTALLED)
+        && pcmk__strcase_any_of(op->action, PCMK_ACTION_START, PCMK_ACTION_STOP,
+                                NULL)) {
         // The filter takes ownership of op and will finalize it on removal
         if (dbus_connection_add_filter(systemd_proxy, filter_job_removed_signal,
                                        op, finalize_async_op_dbus)) {