diff --git a/hadoop-hdds/framework/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdds/scm/proxy/SCMFailoverProxyProviderBase.java b/hadoop-hdds/framework/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdds/scm/proxy/SCMFailoverProxyProviderBase.java
index 272db7a04ae4..05e06e57e1b3 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdds/framework/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdds/scm/proxy/SCMFailoverProxyProviderBase.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdds/framework/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdds/scm/proxy/SCMFailoverProxyProviderBase.java
@@ -39,6 +39,7 @@
 import org.apache.hadoop.io.retry.FailoverProxyProvider;
 import org.apache.hadoop.io.retry.RetryPolicies;
 import org.apache.hadoop.io.retry.RetryPolicy;
+import org.apache.hadoop.io.retry.RetryPolicy.RetryAction.RetryDecision;
 import org.apache.hadoop.ipc_.ProtobufRpcEngine;
 import org.apache.hadoop.ipc_.RPC;
 import org.apache.hadoop.net.NetUtils;
@@ -333,13 +334,20 @@ public RetryAction shouldRetry(Exception e, int retry,
           }
         }
 
+        RetryPolicy.RetryAction retryAction = SCMHAUtils.getRetryAction(
+            failover, retry, e, maxRetryCount, getRetryInterval());
+
+        if (retryAction.action == RetryDecision.RETRY
+            || retryAction.action == RetryDecision.FAILOVER_AND_RETRY) {
+          printRetryMessage(e, failover, retryAction.delayMillis);
+        }
+
         if (SCMHAUtils.checkRetriableWithNoFailoverException(e)) {
           setUpdatedLeaderNodeID();
         } else {
           performFailoverToAssignedLeader(null, e);
         }
-        return SCMHAUtils.getRetryAction(failover, retry, e, maxRetryCount,
-            getRetryInterval());
+        return retryAction;
       }
     };
   }
@@ -347,4 +355,39 @@ public RetryAction shouldRetry(Exception e, int retry,
   public synchronized void setUpdatedLeaderNodeID() {
     this.updatedLeaderNodeID = getCurrentProxySCMNodeId();
   }
+
+  /**
+   * Print user-facing retry message to stderr.
+   * Shows connection attempts and failover progress.
+   * Only called when a retry will actually occur.
+   *
+   * @param exception the exception that triggered the retry
+   * @param failoverCount the number of failover attempts made so far
+   * @param delayMillis the delay before the next retry attempt
+   */
+  private void printRetryMessage(Exception exception, int failoverCount,
+      long delayMillis) {
+    Throwable cause = exception.getCause();
+    String exceptionType = (cause != null ? cause : exception).getClass().getSimpleName();
+
+    // Extract concise error message
+    String errorMsg;
+    if (cause != null && cause.getMessage() != null) {
+      String fullMsg = cause.getMessage();
+      int colonIndex = fullMsg.indexOf(':');
+      errorMsg = colonIndex > 0 && colonIndex < 100 ?
+          fullMsg.substring(0, colonIndex) : fullMsg;
+    } else {
+      errorMsg = exception.getMessage();
+    }
+
+    System.err.printf("%s: %s, while invoking %s over %s. " +
+        "Retrying in %dms after %d failover attempt(s).%n",
+        exceptionType,
+        errorMsg,
+        protocolClass.getSimpleName(),
+        getCurrentProxySCMNodeId(),
+        delayMillis,
+        failoverCount);
+  }
 }
diff --git a/hadoop-ozone/integration-test/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdds/scm/TestFailoverWithSCMHA.java b/hadoop-ozone/integration-test/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdds/scm/TestFailoverWithSCMHA.java
index a4318a2cc698..ac80c4bd689b 100644
--- a/hadoop-ozone/integration-test/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdds/scm/TestFailoverWithSCMHA.java
+++ b/hadoop-ozone/integration-test/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdds/scm/TestFailoverWithSCMHA.java
@@ -25,6 +25,8 @@
 
 import com.google.protobuf.ByteString;
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.util.HashMap;
+import java.util.Map;
 import java.util.concurrent.TimeoutException;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdds.conf.OzoneConfiguration;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdds.protocol.proto.HddsProtos;
@@ -45,6 +47,7 @@
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdds.tracing.TracingUtil;
 import org.apache.hadoop.ozone.MiniOzoneCluster;
 import org.apache.hadoop.ozone.MiniOzoneHAClusterImpl;
+import org.apache.hadoop.ozone.admin.OzoneAdmin;
 import org.apache.ozone.test.GenericTestUtils;
 import org.apache.ozone.test.GenericTestUtils.LogCapturer;
 import org.junit.jupiter.api.AfterEach;
@@ -66,6 +69,14 @@ public class TestFailoverWithSCMHA {
 
   private static final long SNAPSHOT_THRESHOLD = 5;
 
+  private static final String[][] OZONE_ADMIN_SCM_COMMANDS = {
+      {"datanode", "list"},
+      {"pipeline", "list"},
+      {"scm", "roles"},
+      {"container", "list"},
+      {"safemode", "status"}
+  };
+
   @BeforeEach
   public void init() throws Exception {
     conf = new OzoneConfiguration();
@@ -214,6 +225,38 @@ public void testContainerBalancerPersistsConfigurationInAllSCMs()
     }
   }
 
+  /**
+   * Verifies that when SCMs are unavailable, the CLI shows retry messages
+   * on stderr before eventually failing for all SCM-querying commands.
+   */
+  @Test
+  public void testRetryMessageShownWhenScmUnavailable() throws Exception {
+    SCMClientConfig scmClientConfig = conf.getObject(SCMClientConfig.class);
+    scmClientConfig.setRetryCount(2);
+    scmClientConfig.setRetryInterval(50);
+    conf.setFromObject(scmClientConfig);
+
+    Map<String, String> configOverrides = new HashMap<>();
+    cluster.getConf().forEach(entry ->
+        configOverrides.put(entry.getKey(), entry.getValue()));
+
+    cluster.shutdown();
+    cluster = null;
+
+    OzoneAdmin ozoneAdmin = new OzoneAdmin();
+    ozoneAdmin.setConfigurationOverrides(configOverrides);
+
+    for (String[] args : OZONE_ADMIN_SCM_COMMANDS) {
+      try (GenericTestUtils.PrintStreamCapturer err = GenericTestUtils.captureErr()) {
+        ozoneAdmin.execute(args);
+        String stderrOutput = err.get();
+
+        // Retry message format: "... Retrying in Xms after N failover attempt(s)."
+        assertThat(stderrOutput.toLowerCase()).contains("retrying in", "failover attempt(s)");
+      }
+    }
+  }
+
   static StorageContainerManager getLeader(MiniOzoneHAClusterImpl impl) {
     for (StorageContainerManager scm : impl.getStorageContainerManagers()) {
       if (scm.checkLeader()) {