diff --git a/tools/check_python_dependencies.py b/tools/check_python_dependencies.py
index 1c290b4b7c..35df9ea392 100755
--- a/tools/check_python_dependencies.py
+++ b/tools/check_python_dependencies.py
@@ -37,6 +37,21 @@ except ImportError:
 PYTHON_PACKAGE_RE = re.compile(r'[^<>=~]+')
 
 
+def validate_requirement_list(file_path: str) -> str:
+    """Validate that a requirement file exists and is readable."""
+    if not os.path.isfile(file_path):
+        raise argparse.ArgumentTypeError(
+            f'Requirement file {file_path} not found\n'
+            'Please make sure the file path is correct.\n'
+            'In case the file was removed, please run the export script again, to update the environment.'
+        )
+    try:
+        open(file_path, encoding='utf-8').close()
+    except IOError as e:
+        raise argparse.ArgumentTypeError(f'Cannot read requirement file {file_path}: {e}')
+    return file_path
+
+
 # The version and requires function from importlib.metadata in python prior
 # 3.10 does perform distribution name normalization before searching for
 # package distribution. This might cause problems for package with dot in its
@@ -66,12 +81,21 @@ def get_requires(name: str) -> Optional[list]:
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':
     parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='ESP-IDF Python package dependency checker')
-    parser.add_argument('--requirements', '-r',
-                        help='Path to a requirements file (can be used multiple times)',
-                        action='append', default=[])
-    parser.add_argument('--constraints', '-c', default=[],
-                        help='Path to a constraints file (can be used multiple times)',
-                        action='append')
+    parser.add_argument(
+        '--requirements',
+        '-r',
+        help='Path to a requirements file (can be used multiple times)',
+        action='append',
+        default=[],
+        type=validate_requirement_list,
+    )
+    parser.add_argument(
+        '--constraints',
+        '-c',
+        default=[],
+        help='Path to a constraints file (can be used multiple times)',
+        action='append',
+    )
     args = parser.parse_args()
 
     required_set = set()
diff --git a/tools/idf_tools.py b/tools/idf_tools.py
index 7bb759ce94..a83e026391 100755
--- a/tools/idf_tools.py
+++ b/tools/idf_tools.py
@@ -1203,6 +1203,25 @@ class IDFRecord:
         features.add('core')
         self._features = list(features)
 
+    def check_feature_requirements_files(self) -> None:
+        """
+        Check if feature requirements files exist.
+        If not, remove the feature from the features list.
+        """
+        features_to_remove: Tuple[str, ...] = ()
+        for feature in self._features:
+            if not os.path.isfile(feature_to_requirements_path(feature)):
+                info(
+                    '\n'.join(
+                        [
+                            f"Feature file '{feature_to_requirements_path(feature)}' does not exist.",
+                            f'Removing feature {feature}',
+                        ]
+                    )
+                )
+                features_to_remove += (feature,)
+        self.update_features(remove=features_to_remove)
+
     @property
     def targets(self) -> List[str]:
         return self._targets
@@ -1540,6 +1559,7 @@ def process_and_check_features(idf_env_obj, features_str):  # type: (IDFEnv, str
         raise SystemExit(1)
 
     idf_env_obj.get_active_idf_record().update_features(tuple(new_features), tuple(remove_features))
+    idf_env_obj.get_active_idf_record().check_feature_requirements_files()
     return idf_env_obj.get_active_idf_record().features