Unable to install pandas - file in use

Python Help
1

Hello,

I am attempting to install pandas for a user in our environment. However, when we use the pip install pandas command, it returns that the file is in use:


Collecting pandas
  Using cached pandas-2.3.3-cp310-cp310-win_amd64.whl.metadata (19 kB)
Collecting numpy>=1.22.4 (from pandas)
  Using cached numpy-2.2.6-cp310-cp310-win_amd64.whl.metadata (60 kB)
Collecting python-dateutil>=2.8.2 (from pandas)
  Using cached python_dateutil-2.9.0.post0-py2.py3-none-any.whl.metadata (8.4 kB)
Collecting pytz>=2020.1 (from pandas)
  Using cached pytz-2025.2-py2.py3-none-any.whl.metadata (22 kB)
Collecting tzdata>=2022.7 (from pandas)
  Using cached tzdata-2025.2-py2.py3-none-any.whl.metadata (1.4 kB)
Collecting six>=1.5 (from python-dateutil>=2.8.2->pandas)
  Using cached six-1.17.0-py2.py3-none-any.whl.metadata (1.7 kB)
Downloading pandas-2.3.3-cp310-cp310-win_amd64.whl (11.3 MB)
   ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╺━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 4.6/11.3 MB 1.1 MB/s eta 0:00:07
ERROR: Could not install packages due to an OSError: [WinError 32] The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process: 'C:\\Users\\usernamehere\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\pip-unpack-divtfpsb\\pandas-2.3.3-cp310-cp310-win_amd64.whl'                                                                                                                                                                                                  
Check the permissions.

Any ideas what might be occurring here? Restarts / reinstalls of PyCharm do not seem to hel, nor can I locate the referenced folder.

2

You have another process that has opened the .whl file.
Quit programs until the problem goes away, or reboot to get to a clean situation.

1 Like
3

Hello,

We have tried reboots and force quits to no avail, unfortunately.

4

There are Windows tools that you can use to find the process that has the file open. You will need to do a web search to find them as I do not have a recommendation off the top of my head.

Hmmm, I think I used a sysinternals tool in the past maybe?

5

Nieve shot in the dark here, but does this file exist, and can you delete it?

6

Unfortunately the path does not seem to exist when searched for in file explorer. :frowning:

7

Does

exist and you could delete that? Maybe try to uninstall pandas and reinstall?
It looks like you’ve tried a lot of things already. I’m by no means any kind of expert, just throwing things out there. Good luck.

1 Like
8

I have sometimes been able to blame anti-virus software for this kind of thing: sees a “dangerous looking” archive being unpacked and grabs it to scan it. Not that I would ever advise you to turn security off.

Like others, just a guess.

9

I’ve had issues with anti-virus running as well. I forget if I was installing or uninstalling something, but when I temporarily disabled my AV, the problem I had was resolved. I had recently changed AV software, and I didn’t get a notification that something was blocked.

10

Yep. I’ve had to whitelist a bunch of directories for Python and games when using a new AV. At work our IT department takes care of that. OP should try that. If a reboot didn’t solve this then maybe the AV sees a file that is suspicious and that’s where the error comes from.

Also make sure

  1. You’re installing into a project directory with an active environment.