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pip looking in wrong folder

My issue requires some backstory.
I was having some troubles with pip, so I reinstalled Python. After the reinstall pip began to work, but Pycharm, my IDE, could no longer find Python. When I reinstalled Python it created a new folder for itself (Python310), but Pycharm kept looking in the old folder (Python39). I couldn't figure out how to get Pycharm to look in the new folder. Even deleting and reinstalling it did nothing.
So, I renamed Python310 to Python39 and changed the PATH. Now Pycharm can find Python. But pip has developed a new and exciting error. When I try to use it I get the following message:
Fatal error in launcher: Unable to create process using '"C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python310\python.exe" "C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python39\Scripts\pip.exe" install numpy': The system cannot find the file specified.
If I read this correctly pip is still trying to look in Python310. Would you please tell me what I need to do to get pip to looking in the right place?

So, to start. You don't fix this by renaming the folder where the interpreter resides. Even if that worked, it's not a fix. The name will say one thing, but it's actual version, compatible libraries, and anything else tied to the version number would be incorrect.
If you take a close look at the error message from pip, it tells us what's wrong.
Fatal error in launcher: Unable to create process using '"C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python310\python.exe" "C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python39\Scripts\pip.exe" install numpy': The system cannot find the file specified.
You renamed the directory, so your IDE can find it, but pip and everything else using the Python interpreter is still configured to look in the Python39 directory to find it.
The problem you are having is that your IDE, PyCharm, needs to be configured for your project. You have to tell it where the Python interpreter is. The simple solution, you can rename your your Python folder back to it's original state, and add it to your project.
Press Ctrl+Alt+S to open the project Settings/Preferences and go to Project | Python Interpreter. Click the Add Interpreter link next to the list of the available interpreters.
Expand the list of the available interpreters and click the Show All link.
Select the target interpreter.
In your case, look for the one with this file path: "C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python310\python.exe"
I would recommend going one step futher and create an interpreter in a virtual environment. Especially if you are interested in Python beyond a very casual hobby. They are unavoidable.
This link is a good source and can help you with this:
https://www.jetbrains.com/help/pycharm/configuring-python-interpreter.html#interpreter
There, you will find screenshots that follow the steps I listed above. There are also detailed instructions on how to create and add a new interpreter in a virtual environment. The relevant headings are as follows:
Configure a Python interpreter
Python interpreters in PyCharm
Setting an existing Python interpreter
Creating a new Python interpreter
The rest of the content is great as well, and may help answer questions you didn't know you had.

try to uninstall all of the existing python versions. and install it again. using any of application allow you to delete most of files, so to prevent error when re-install .

Option 1:
delete and reinstall again. and then when creating a project it should prompt you to pick a basic interpreter, choose python310 or whatever version you're using.
Option 2:
use a different IDE.

Python not showing existing venv in interpreter select

I have a shared flask web project I am working on with 2 other developers, one of the developers initialized the venv on his pc, uploaded his project structure to github from where I cloned his repo.
Now I when I start vscode and open the project folder, python does not auto detect the venv and asks if it should set is as the interpreter, the only option I have is the default system wide python install, and not the venv python interpreter.
I tried adding it to the list by using the command python:select interpreter and then finding the python.exe inside the venv/scripts folder, but this does not work and vscode still asks for a interpreter.
I also tried manually adding it inside of my workspace settings.json file like so
"python.pythonPath": "C:\\laragon\\www\\Proftaak\\venv\\Scripts\\python.exe"/
But vscode also gives an error on this saying the interpreter is not valid.
How would I fix this?

This is not expected to work as virtual environments are not designed or meant to be movable. They are meant to be created on each machine you need a virtual environment on. As such, I suspect that the virtual environment does not work outside of VS Code which could prevent it from selecting it as a possible working environment.

'Cannot setup a Python SDK' in PyCharm project using virtualenv after OS reinstallation

I re-installed windows and opened an existing Pycharm project and get the error 'SDK seems invalid' in Settings > Project Interpreter.
The project interpreter path is pointing to python in the venv:
MyProject\venv\Scripts\python.exe
I tried re-adding python.exe:
Thats when I get the error:
Update: here is an error from idea.log, a lot of other issues for virtual environments seem to be with windows environment variables and system paths:
2018-09-28 19:50:40,275 [ 17601] INFO - hon.packaging.PyPIPackageCache - Loaded 153296 packages from C:\Users\Matt\.PyCharm2018.2\system\python_packages\pypi-cache.json
2018-09-28 19:50:40,816 [ 18142] INFO - rains.python.sdk.PythonSdkType - Fatal Python error: Py_Initialize: unable to load the file system codec
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'encodings'
Current thread 0x00000fa8 (most recent call first):
Exit code -1073740791
2018-09-28 19:50:40,816 [ 18142] ERROR - ns.python.sdk.PythonSdkUpdater - Failed to determine Python's sys.path value:
STDOUT:
STDERR: Fatal Python error: Py_Initialize: unable to load the file system codec
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'encodings'
Current thread 0x00000fa8 (most recent call first):
com.jetbrains.python.sdk.InvalidSdkException: Failed to determine Python's sys.path value:
STDOUT:
STDERR: Fatal Python error: Py_Initialize: unable to load the file system codec
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'encodings'

What solution is: Check out venv\pyvenv.cfg and provide a valid path to the basic python installation.
What has most probably happend:
After reinstalling your OS, you have no base python interpreter reinstalled or you have installed it at different location than before. Thus your virtual environment fails to locate the python installation. Virtual environment implies that all libraries and settings are isolated from other projects. It does not provide an isolated python installation. You still need your base python that had been used for venv creation.
My case: I have a project in a network share and try accessing it from different computers. The base python paths depend on the very PC. The solution above works fine for me. Unfortunatelly, I need to update pyvenv.cfg depending on the PC in use.
P.S. I believe that there is an environment variable to overide the venv config value. I only tried to set PYTHONPATH=C:\Anaconda3\envs\python37 on Windows and then to activate venv. It did no effect and I gave it up.

Here's what solved my problem when I faced the exact same issue
Navigate to Project Interpreter, right side of the selection box, click the gear icon, it will show two options add & show all.
Click show all, if you see the previous existence from the same directory delete that. Click on add or + sign to add a new interpreter and navigate to your project path, navigate down to the virtual environment directory.
venv/bin/{select the python executable with the version code i.e if you are using python3.6 select python3.6}
Once selected, you can now click the notice that says install packaging tools, hit apply and done.

Most probably, some path to Python environment that PyCharm tries to use has become invalid somewhere. There are (at least) two primary suspects:
Path to your virtualenv in PyCharm settings
PyCharm needs to know the path to your environment to run things in it. So, if that path changed, PyCharm's saved path has become invalid.
Go to the interpreter settings for your project in File->Settings...->Project interpreter->(Gear icon)->Show all...:
Then delete and recreate the necessary entries. Or edit them and specify correct paths.
E.g. this is what my list looks like after I deleted an Anaconda installation:
Path in the virtualenv to its base installation
Since virtualenv is not a full installation, it must have a path to its base installation stored somewhere to be able to use files from there.
As of this writing, virtualenv (v16.0.0) in Windows is implemented like this:
The real python.exe and several other files are copied into the virtualenv's subtree
In Lib\orig-prefix.txt, the path to the base installation is stored. It is used to add the base installation's Lib to sys.path via a custom site.py.
So, if the path in that file becomes invalid, the virtualenv's Python interpreter will be unable to find any standard modules except those few that were copied. Which perfectly fits your symptoms.

I currently have the same issue, that I can't install any package tool in Pycharm and that freak me out. Here is the step I fixed it, just want to share. OuO.
Step 1
Find show all in the right corner of a setting icon
Step 2
Click the + icon to open Add python Interpreter
Step 3
In New environment 's Location Under Virtualenv Environment select file
Step 4
Find your Pycharm file and make an empty file under it and click OK and keep click OK
Step 5
Now in Project Interpreter select the empty file you just create and now you should be fine to install Pycharm package.Hope this solve your problem.

In my case the problem was because I was using WSL to host my project so the project address used by PyCharm to create and select the venv was wrong. Instead of using the option Virtualenv Environment to create the environment:
You need to select the WSL option from the side bar and then enter the path to your new or existing venv.

Nothing above worked for me
I made a simple change , Hope it works for you too !!
It happens due to conflict in storing python.exe , In my case it was in F:\ drive
Solution :- Pycharm expects python.exe file to be present in some location , you can check that in project interpreter , it will show some default location where pycharm is searching to execute exe file , but issue is the exe file is not present at that location , so create the folder which pycharm was expecting to execute exe file and paste the downloaded exe file
Hope it Works for you !!
Happy Coding

Well, i'm pritty new to Python, and I did too had a re-install of my os after a crash
Old setup:
In the old system setup I used python 3.7.4. I made al my (practice)projects with that, and each project had a venv/scripts/python3.7.exe in it.... my undertanding is/was that all the files in these virtual environment where 'stand alone', so sufficient to run a python 3.7.4 for that specific projec files, and not depending on files of the home-python-dir.
The install-directory of python was c:\Program Files (x86)\python 37-32
Each project had a file [project-path]/venv/pyvenv.cfg, and in this file there was the line
home = C:\Program Files (x86)\Python37-32
then - my system crashed - reinstalled windows 10, and downloaded again python, but this time python 3.8, and it installed in C:\Program Files (x86)\Python38-32
New setup:
So, after some hairs lost - I also installed the old python version 3.7.4 in the specific path stated in the pyenv.cfg file (C:\Program Files (x86)\Python37-32). So, i had 2 python versions installed on my new system, one in .../python38-32 and one in .../python37-32
And that worked, so when I selected in 'add interpreter/existing interpreter' and pointed to the [project]/venv/python3.7.exe it worked like a charm.
So, apearantly there are files in each version-specific home-directory that pycharm/python needs - i was under the impression that the files in the .venv directory would be all it needed....

I faced this issue when I switched my system which had different python version installed at different location. The simple short solution is to open 'pyenv' file and point it to the current installation path in your current system and that's it.

I had the same problem and couldn't really figure it out.
As it was a side project the mistake was infuriating and hilarious at the same time.
My folder names had non-english letters. Specifically it had the letter "đ" and the SDK was always invalid because of it.
You might say a stupid mistake, it was, but I wasn't really paying attention.
Hope this helps somebody.

I get the issue in Pycharm 2021.2.3 when I try to make a new environment using an exe that is called anything but python.exe (I was organising my different versions by calling them python39.exe, python38.exe, etc.). I just stopped doing that and renamed all my python exes to python.exe and it started working.

go to the Edit Configuration foe edit interpreter, then remove all interpreter then ok.
now, you should add new interpreter and select the path of python.exe in your installation path(for example c:\ ),then ok.
for me, i solved this error by this solution.

The paths specified in pyvenv.cfg need to be corrected after the venv folder is copied from one computer to another. The main place to look at is the user name. For example:
Old computer:C:\Users\OldComputerUserName\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python310
New computer:C:\Users\NewComputerUserName\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python310
The path is fixed when you add interpreter to the project the 1st time. I learned it the hard way too.

This problem is because the interpreter path points to the virtual-env, instantiated to the particular project. But we don't have any python installed there.
Therefore we have to set the interpreter path to the "python.exe" file inside the python folder which we have installed on our PC.
This can solve this problem very easily.
If you haven't installed python on your machine please install it and set the path accordingly.
Thank you.

I also had this issue and it's 2023! All I can tell you is what I did to fix it. I tried the other solutions listed in this post (at least the ones I looked at) and they didn't work.
What I did was I copied the venv file in my project (for safekeeping) and then moved it elsewhere.
I deleted the venv file in my project after making my backup and I deleted the interpreter that I had been trying to use.
From there I opened up File -> Settings -> Python Interpreter -> and since there was now no interpreter and no venv folder
I created the interpreter again. Make sure to list the proper path to the version of the python exe you want to use!
From there you pretty much just apply your changes and you will see it pop up with some prompts. It will create a new venv folder for you, just accept the prompts and it worked for me.

Pycharm: unable to add pycharm.exe

I have downloaded PyCharm and I am not able to add the interpreter. I have referred all the topics here, and was able to find this. But still I couldn't solve the problem, when I select the PyCharm.exe file it says "The selected file is not a valid home for Python SDK". I have rebooted my system, Uninstalled and reinstalled PyCharm, but did not find any luck. Please Help!

From pycharm,
select create new project and then you will get to name the project and select the project interpreter. In the Location you need to name and path for the project.
There will be project Interpreter just below Location. There you need to select New environment and provide the respective values. Make sure in the Base Interpreter selects the python.exe

PyCharm doesn't detect interpreter

I'm new to programming and just started a course on Python. I want to use PyCharm, so I downloaded and intalled it (v. 4.5, community edition). I had previously installed Python 3.5 64-bit from python.org (I'm using Windows 10).
To start using PyCharm, I need a project interpreter, which I can select in the settings. As far as I'm concerned, the interpreter is "py.exe", but when I select it, I get this error message: "The selected file is not a valid home for Python SDK". I also tried to use every file whose name contained "python" or "py", and failed.
On every website and video I see, they select a file called "python.exe", but they're using Python 3.4 or a previous version. I checked that PyCharm supports 3.5 ("Initial support for Python 3.5").
Is there anything I'm doing wrong? What should I do to be able to use PyCharm?
All replies are appreciated. Thanks in advance.

file > new project settings > project Interpreter > click in the drop down and select 'show all' > click the '+' button >
Now, in the Virtualenv Environment tab under the New environment radio button, check the path in the 'Base interpreter:' field. For me, mine was set to an invalid path. Once I had corrected the path to point to python.exe I recreated my new project and PyCharm built the virtualenv.
For me there was a bit more too.... When creating the new project I expanded the drop down and had to verify the directory where the venv directory was being created. Once I had corrected the path here I had to click around a bit to get it to let me create the project.
I'm going to chaulk this up to a bug. I'm using Community edition.

When creating a project in PyCharm, if the interpret is not already selected, in the drop down menu under the projects "Location:", you can click the gear-looking icon to the right of the interpreter option, and click "Add Local"; then select the file location of the python.exe file that you have installed. It will probably be C:\Python35\Python.exe

I faced a Similar issue and was not able to find Python interpreter anywhere on the system.
The problem with it was that python was installed directly with default settings and there was no exe found in
C:\Python35\
and to solve this i tried uninstalling and reinstalling with custom settings and selecting allow for all users as well which did the trick and path was set correctly to
C:\Python35\python.exe.
After whichPycharm was able to detect the interpreter on this path.

PyCharm project interpreter problem Resolved
I installed anaconda python distribution (Anaconda3-5.0.1-Windows-x86_64.exe) from the anaconda website. https://anaconda.org/anaconda/python
What it actually did was it re-installed my Python3.6.3 (pertinent to mention I have windows10, with pyCharm community & python 3.5 already but with the interpreter problem and while installing anaconda I chose the following settings and disabled my antivirus before my anaconda installation):
selecting allow for all users
installation path was set correctly and (stored safely for future)
restart my Computer after installation.(not essential-but I did)
opened Anaconda & Jet brian pycharm
selected new project in PyCharm screen shot of my New project default Python interpreter location = C:\Users\Skboy\PycharmProjects\dani Interpreter = C:\Users\Skboy\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36-32\python.exe
Wow! my pyCharm started working for me,
Resolution : Python6.3 re-installation with proper custom setting
make a python test test1.py program file to print "hello python test world"
Run
now my Python Interpreter(automatically -by default select) Python 3.6.3
edit configuration & check for interpreter
(C:\Users\user1\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36-32\python.exe)
Run
success test Run
worth to mention Anaconda Jupyter is a web based can also be used in case novice user are still having problems

I have had the exact same problem and was unable to find the solution until just now. Hopefully this works for anyone that was struggling with it.
I went to the location of the Python 3.5 (32-Bit) in my C: Drive which it turns out is just a shortcut to the actual Python application, right click on it and select Open file location which should direct you to the application version of python - simply called 'python'. This is the .exe file that PyCharm was looking for to use as the interpreter.
Now go to the configure interpreter menu in Pycharm and type in the file location of the actual python application. To get to mine I had to go to AppData/Local/Programs/Python/Python35-32. Click on the python.exe file and it should work.
This is my first post here so if its formatted incorrectly or doesn't use the conventional terms - sorry. Let me know if the solution worked for anyone else with the problem or if I fluked it.

If you kept the default settings while installing python, Your project interpreter for PyCharm will be:
C:\Users\yourUserName\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36\python.exe
Chose the above location as your project interpreter inside PyCharm.
Depending on which python version you have, it could be either Python36\python.exe or Python35\python.exe.

For me the following solution it worked:
My configuration:
Pycharm Community edition 2019.1.1
Anaconda distribution with python 3.7. Interpreter in standard location.
Problem:
Pycharm was not able to find python interpreter after reinstallation of anaconda distribution.
Solution:
- Make sure you run pycharm as admin (right click and run as admin). This was actually the critical step.
- Create new project (or open an existing one)
- Depending on the choice choose interpter or go to file > settings > project interpreter > choose small gear on rights side > add > on base interpreter choose the 3 dots > paste the location of the interpreter in the anaconda distribution.
Hope it helped someone. For me the blocking point was that for some reason pycharm was not launching with admin rights.
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