How To Fix The “Defaulting To User Installation Because Normal Site-packages Is Not Writeable” Problem?

Python is a scripting language, and there are times when you have to create a Python package and distribute it manually. The problem is that you have to do a lot of extra work to make sure that you can install the Python package. The following blog post will help users solve “Defaulting to user installation when regular site-packages is not writeable” in Python.

Defaulting to user installation when regular site-packages is not writeable

How Can You Fix The “Defaulting To User Installation Because Normal Site-packages Is Not Writeable” Problem?

Have you ever attempted to install a package and received the following error:

Defaulting to user installation because normal site-packages is not writeable

The method to fix the “Defaulting to user installation because normal site-packages is not writeable” problem is uninstalling and then reinstalling Python. After that, everything looks to be in working condition. We’re not sure why, but the message “Defaulting to user installation because normal site-packages is not writeable” doesn’t appear anymore. 

Approach 1: Reinstall Python

After uninstalling and reinstalling Python, It’s all OK. It seems logical that it wouldn’t print out the message “Defaulting to user installation because normal site-packages is not writeable”.

Approach 2: Update The Python Download Location

Change the Python download path and run cmd as admin/without admin, or both.

Approach 3: Upgrade To The Latest Python Version

Just make sure your Python version is up-to-date.

Approach 4: When Installing The Package, Utilize The Python Version

When installing the package, you need to use the Python version.

Python 3:

python3 -m pip install [package_name]

Python 3.7:

python3.7 -m pip install [package_name]

Python 2:

python -m pip install [package_name]

Conclusion

We hope you enjoyed our article about fixing the “Defaulting to user installation when regular site-packages are not writeable” issue. We are confident that with this information, you will be able to make the most of your Python development experience by installing packages in a user-specific location rather than system-wide. 

If you are still having any problems with your Python packages, please feel free to leave us a comment. Thank you for reading; please make sure to share this helpful article with others!


Related Posts
Scroll to Top