pip install error: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process

Question

I'm trying to do: pip install pandas_datareader

I'm getting this error.

PermissionError: [WinError 32] The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process: 'C:\\Users\\ryans\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\tmpmyj3mha6'

I ran the pip install process from the Anaconda Prompt, which I ran both normally and in Administrator mode. I also uninstalled and reinstalled Anaconda this morning. Everything worked totally fine yesterday and I don't know what changed overnight. Maybe there is some kind of virus checker process running, or maybe there is an issue with a firewall. Not sure. How can I troubleshoot this and get things back in business?

Answer 1

I had to change two file names and then everything worked fine.

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python310\Lib\site-packages

File names:

python-certifi-win32-init.pth
distutils-precedence.pth

Found the solution here.

pip broke after downlading python-certifi-win32