diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index f8b6134b9d..d1ee418e78 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ Changelog for NeoFS Node
 - Double voting for validators on IR startup (#2365)
 - Skip unexpected notary events on notary request parsing step (#2315)
 - Session inactivity on object PUT request relay (#2460)
+- Missing connection retries on IR node startup when the first configured mainnet RPC node is not in sync (#2474)
 
 ### Removed
 - Deprecated `morph.rpc_endpoint` SN and `morph.endpoint.client` IR config sections (#2400)
diff --git a/pkg/innerring/innerring.go b/pkg/innerring/innerring.go
index e468997259..6195cfd3ce 100644
--- a/pkg/innerring/innerring.go
+++ b/pkg/innerring/innerring.go
@@ -479,8 +479,13 @@ func New(ctx context.Context, log *zap.Logger, cfg *viper.Viper, errChan chan<-
 			return nil, err
 		}
 
-		// create mainnet listener
-		server.mainnetListener, err = createListener(ctx, server.mainnetClient, mainnetChain)
+		// create mainnet listener, retry with a different node if current one is not up to date
+		for {
+			server.mainnetListener, err = createListener(ctx, server.mainnetClient, mainnetChain)
+			if !errors.Is(err, subscriber.ErrStaleNode) || !server.mainnetClient.SwitchRPC() {
+				break
+			}
+		}
 		if err != nil {
 			return nil, err
 		}
diff --git a/pkg/morph/subscriber/subscriber.go b/pkg/morph/subscriber/subscriber.go
index e9b3bca21d..4163aaf01c 100644
--- a/pkg/morph/subscriber/subscriber.go
+++ b/pkg/morph/subscriber/subscriber.go
@@ -68,6 +68,9 @@ func (s *subscriber) NotificationChannels() NotificationChannels {
 }
 
 var (
+	// ErrStaleNode is returned from [New] when StartFromBlock requirement
+	// specified in [Params] is not satisfied by the given node.
+	ErrStaleNode = errors.New("RPC node is not yet up to date")
 	errNilParams = errors.New("chain/subscriber: config was not provided to the constructor")
 
 	errNilLogger = errors.New("chain/subscriber: logger was not provided to the constructor")
@@ -332,8 +335,8 @@ func awaitHeight(cli *client.Client, startFrom uint32) error {
 		return fmt.Errorf("could not get block height: %w", err)
 	}
 
-	if height < startFrom {
-		return fmt.Errorf("RPC block counter %d didn't reach expected height %d", height, startFrom)
+	if height < startFrom+1 {
+		return fmt.Errorf("%w: expected %d height, got %d count", ErrStaleNode, startFrom, height)
 	}
 
 	return nil