diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-failure-output.R b/tests/testthat/test-failure-output.R
index 0033ea71f..cbfa41fd7 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-failure-output.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-failure-output.R
@@ -12,7 +12,10 @@ test_that("output is printed on failure", {
 
   expect_error(
     callr::r(stdout = tmp, stderr = tmp, function(pkg) {
-      pkgload::load_all()
+      # if this is not R CMD check, use `load_all()``
+      # otherwise `load_all()` does not work, because we are not in the
+      # package tree in `R CMD check`.
+      if (Sys.getenv("_R_CHECK_PACKAGE_NAME_") == "") pkgload::load_all()
       options(rlib_interactive = TRUE)
       pak::pkg_install(pkg)
     }, list(pkg = badcompile))
@@ -28,7 +31,8 @@ test_that("output is printed on failure", {
 
   expect_error(
     callr::r(stdout = tmp, stderr = tmp, function(pkg) {
-      pkgload::load_all()
+      # see above
+      if (Sys.getenv("_R_CHECK_PACKAGE_NAME_") == "") pkgload::load_all()
       options(rlib_interactive = FALSE)
       pak::pkg_install(pkg)
     }, list(pkg = badcompile))