diff --git a/src/dist/manifestation.rs b/src/dist/manifestation.rs
index c47de9366b..3ba8065a78 100644
--- a/src/dist/manifestation.rs
+++ b/src/dist/manifestation.rs
@@ -187,6 +187,12 @@ impl Manifestation {
 
         // Uninstall components
         for component in update.components_to_uninstall {
+            // If there are no components installed, we don't need to keep
+            // checking, we can simply exit the loop earlier.
+            if self.installation.list()?.is_empty() {
+                info!("recovering from a partially installed toolchain");
+                break;
+            }
             match (implicit_modify, &component.target) {
                 (true, Some(t)) if t != &self.target_triple => {
                     info!(