ERROR: Can not perform a '--user' install. User site-packages are not visible in this virtualenv

# ERROR: Can not perform a '--user' install. User site-packages are not visible in this virtualenv.

The error "Can not perform a '--user' install. User site-packages are not visible in this virtualenv" occurs for multiple reasons:

1. Running the pip install command with the --user option with a virtual environment active.
2. Trying to install a module in VSCode (e.g. pylint) with a virtual environment active.
3. Having the user property set to true in your pip.conf file.

To solve the error:

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.

You might have to reactivate the virtual environment after setting include-system-site-packages to true.

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# 👇️ Deactivate
deactivate

# 👇️ Activate on macOS and Linux
source venv/bin/activate

# 👇️ Activate on Windows (cmd.exe)
venv\Scripts\activate.bat

# 👇️ Activate on Windows (PowerShell)
venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1

If you got the error when explicitly running a pip install command with the --user option, you can:

• deactivate the virtual environment before running the command.
• use the sudo prefix to install the module globally (macOS or Linux)

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# 👇️ Deactivate the virtual environment
deactivate

# 👇️ Install the module with the `--user` option
pip install requests --user
pip3 install requests --user

python -m pip install requests --user
python3 -m pip install requests --user
py -m pip install requests --user

# Prefixing the command with sudo to install the package globally

Alternatively, you can prefix the command with sudo on macOS or Linux to install the module globally.

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sudo pip install requests --user
sudo pip3 install requests --user

sudo python -m pip install requests --user
sudo python3 -m pip install requests --user

The location of the pip.conf file is going to differ depending on your operating system.

You can check this section of the docs to view the locations of pip.conf on the different operating systems.

If you still get the error even when installing packages without the --user option, make sure you haven't set the user variable to true in your pip.conf file.