diff --git a/changelog/unreleased/issue-3166 b/changelog/unreleased/issue-3166
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..b3874cf2b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog/unreleased/issue-3166
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+Bugfix: Improve error handling in restore
+
+Restic restore used to not print errors while downloading file contents from
+the repository. restore also incorrectly exited with a zero error code even 
+when there were errors during the restore process. Now, a non-zero code is
+returned.
+
+https://github.com/restic/restic/issues/3166
+https://github.com/restic/restic/pull/3207
diff --git a/cmd/restic/cmd_restore.go b/cmd/restic/cmd_restore.go
index e51eee6cb..cbab2bed4 100644
--- a/cmd/restic/cmd_restore.go
+++ b/cmd/restic/cmd_restore.go
@@ -191,14 +191,26 @@ func runRestore(opts RestoreOptions, gopts GlobalOptions, args []string) error {
 	Verbosef("restoring %s to %s\n", res.Snapshot(), opts.Target)
 
 	err = res.RestoreTo(ctx, opts.Target)
-	if err == nil && opts.Verify {
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+
+	if totalErrors > 0 {
+		return errors.Fatalf("There were %d errors\n", totalErrors)
+	}
+
+	if opts.Verify {
 		Verbosef("verifying files in %s\n", opts.Target)
 		var count int
 		count, err = res.VerifyFiles(ctx, opts.Target)
+		if err != nil {
+			return err
+		}
+		if totalErrors > 0 {
+			return errors.Fatalf("There were %d errors\n", totalErrors)
+		}
 		Verbosef("finished verifying %d files in %s\n", count, opts.Target)
 	}
-	if totalErrors > 0 {
-		Printf("There were %d errors\n", totalErrors)
-	}
-	return err
+
+	return nil
 }