diff --git a/src/BufferParams.cpp b/src/BufferParams.cpp
index c99b467282..e3dcb87986 100644
--- a/src/BufferParams.cpp
+++ b/src/BufferParams.cpp
@@ -1259,6 +1259,9 @@ void BufferParams::validate(LaTeXFeatures & features) const
 		|| useNonTeXFonts))
 		features.require("polyglossia");
 
+	if (useNonTeXFonts && fonts_math != "auto")
+		features.require("unicode-math");
+
 	if (!language->requires().empty())
 		features.require(language->requires());
 }
@@ -1421,10 +1424,9 @@ bool BufferParams::writeLaTeX(otexstream & os, LaTeXFeatures & features,
 
 	if (useNonTeXFonts) {
 		os << "\\usepackage{fontspec}\n";
-		if (fonts_math != "auto" && features.isAvailable("unicode-math")) {
-			features.require("unicode-math");
+		if (features.mustProvide("unicode-math")
+		    && features.isAvailable("unicode-math"))
 			os << "\\usepackage{unicode-math}\n";
-		}
 	}
 
 	// font selection must be done before loading fontenc.sty
diff --git a/src/Encoding.cpp b/src/Encoding.cpp
index 6447e33eec..3325301a7c 100644
--- a/src/Encoding.cpp
+++ b/src/Encoding.cpp
@@ -697,9 +697,11 @@ void Encodings::validate(char_type c, LaTeXFeatures & features, bool for_mathed)
 		bool const use_text = (for_mathed && isTextCmd(c)) ||
 		                      (!for_mathed && !it->second.textcommand.empty());
 		bool const plain_utf8 = (features.runparams().encoding->name() == "utf8-plain");
+		bool const unicode_math = (features.isRequired("unicode-math")
+			&& features.isAvailable("unicode-math"));
 		// with utf8-plain, we only load packages when in mathed (see #7766)
 		// and if we do not use unicode-math
-		if ((math_mode && !features.isRequired("unicode-math"))
+		if ((math_mode && !unicode_math)
 		     || (use_math && !plain_utf8)) {
 			if (!it->second.mathpreamble.empty()) {
 				if (it->second.mathfeature()) {