Could not install packages due to an EnvironmentError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory

# Could not install packages due to an EnvironmentError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory

The error "Could not install packages due to an EnvironmentError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory" is caused by having a long installation path.

To solve the error, remove the max path limitation.

Copied!
Could not install packages due to an EnvironmentError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'C:\\Users\\bobbyhadz\\appdata\\Roaming\\Python\\python310\\site-packages\\pip-22.3.dist-info\\METADATA'

One way to solve the error is to remove the character limit.

# Removing the PATH character limit

To remove the character limit:

1. Click on the search bar, type "registry" and click on "Registry Editor".

2. In the left sidebar, navigate to the "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem" key.

3. Find LongPathsEnabledKey and double-click on it.
4. Set the value in the "Value data" field to 1 and click "OK".

5. Close the Registry Editor, restart your computer and re-run the pip install command.

Alternatively, you can run PowerShell as an administrator and issue a command.

To run PowerShell as an administrator:

1. Click on the search bar and type "PowerShell".
2. Right-click on "Windows PowerShell".
3. Click on "Run as administrator".

5. Paste the following script into PowerShell.

Copied!
Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem" -Name "LongPathsEnabled" -Value 1

4. Close the shell, restart your computer and re-run the pip install command.

Alternatively, you can create an empty METADATA file.

# Create an empty METADATA file in the location in the error message

Your error message will contain a path to a METADATA file that pip is looking for:

Copied!
'C:\\Users\\bobbyhadz\\appdata\\Roaming\\Python\\python310\\site-packages\\pip-22.3.dist-info\\METADATA'

Notice that the path ends with a METADATA file that pip is looking for.

If this didn't work, navigate to the directory from the error message that contains the ...dist-info directory and then move the pip-X.X.X.dist-info directory to another folder.

Once the ...dist-info directory is moved, rerun the pip install command.

If this didn't work, try running the pip install command with the --user option.

# Run the pip install command with the --user option

The error is sometimes caused due to not having the necessary permissions to install a package.

To solve the error, run the pip install command with the --user option.

Copied!
pip install <package-name> --user
pip3 install <package-name> --user

python -m pip install <package-name> --user
python3 -m pip install <package-name> --user

Make sure to replace the <package-name> placeholder with the actual name of the package, e.g. pip install numpy --user.

The --user option installs the package in the user's home directory.

However, the --user option wouldn't work if you have a virtual environment active.

Another thing that often solves the error is upgrading your pip version before installing the specific package.

Copied!
python -m pip install --user --upgrade pip
python -m pip install numpy

python3 -m pip install --user --upgrade pip
python3 -m pip install numpy

If that didn't help, run CMD as an administrator and install the package.

# Run CMD as an administrator

To run CMD as an administrator:

1. Click on the search bar and type "cmd".
2. Right-click on "Command Prompt".
3. Click on "Run as administrator".

4. Once you open the shell as an administrator, rerun the pip install command.

Copied!
pip install <package-name>
pip3 install <package-name>

python -m pip install <package-name>
python3 -m pip install <package-name>

If opening CMD as an administrator didn't help, try to open PowerShell as an administrator and run the command.

To run PowerShell as an administrator:

1. Click on the search bar and type "PowerShell".
2. Right-click on "Windows PowerShell".
3. Click on "Run as administrator".

Windows throws "EnvironmentError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory" when the file is locked by another process.

If the error persists, change the user's access permissions.

# Change the user's access permissions

The error is often caused because the user doesn't have access to modify the directory where the package should be installed.

To solve the error, allow the user full access to the Python directory.

To change the access permissions for the user:

1. Open the folder where you installed Python e.g. C:\Program Files (x86)\Python310.

You can find where Python is installed with either of the following 2 commands.

Copied!
where python

python -c "import os, sys; print(os.path.dirname(sys.executable))"

2. Once you open the directory where Python is installed, right-click on the "Python" or "Python310" folder and click "Properties".

3. Go to the "Security" tab and click on the "Edit" button.

4. Allow "Full control" to your user or the entire "Users" group.

5. Click on "Apply".
6. Run the pip install <package-name> command again.

Once you give "Full access" permissions to the user, you should be able to pip install packages without getting any errors.

If you have a virtual environment active, your Python location will be scoped to the specific virtual environment.

You can run the where python command with your virtual environment active to find the directory.

If that didn't resolve the error, try upgrading your version of pip.

Copied!
# 👇️ If you have pip already installed
pip install --upgrade pip

# 👇️ If your pip is aliased as pip3 (Python 3)
pip3 install --upgrade pip

# 👇️ If you don't have pip in your PATH environment variable
python -m pip install --upgrade pip

# 👇️ If you don't have pip in your PATH environment variable
python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip

# 👇️ If you have easy_install
easy_install --upgrade pip

If you get the error "ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'pip' in Python", check out my other article:

• Install pip in Python

If the commands from the code sample didn't work for you, click on the "Install pip in Python" link.

After you upgrade pip, upgrade setuptools as well.

Copied!
pip install --upgrade setuptools

pip3 install --upgrade setuptools

python3 -m pip install --upgrade setuptools

If that didn't help, try setting include-system-site-packages to true if you use a virtual environment.

# Set "include-system-site-packages" to "true"

If you use a virtual environment, another thing that might help is to:

1. Open your venv folder.
2. Click on the pyvenv.cfg file.
3. Set the include-system-site-packages property to true.
4. Save the file.
5. Rerun the pip install command.

# Conclusion

The error "Could not install packages due to an EnvironmentError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory" is caused by having a long installation path.

To solve the error, remove the max path limitation.