installation on Windows 10 + Python 3.13 leads to PermissionError: [WinError 5] Access is denied:

[edrihan]

Problem

Running this command in Windows 10 LTS with Python 3.13 caused the following output:

pip install beets

Led to this output:

ERROR: Exception:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Users\ed\AppData\Roaming\Python\Python313\site-packages\pip\_internal\cli\base_command.py", line 107, in _run_wrapper
    status = _inner_run()
  File "C:\Users\ed\AppData\Roaming\Python\Python313\site-packages\pip\_internal\cli\base_command.py", line 98, in _inner_run
    return self.run(options, args)
           ~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "C:\Users\ed\AppData\Roaming\Python\Python313\site-packages\pip\_internal\cli\req_command.py", line 71, in wrapper
    return func(self, options, args)
  File "C:\Users\ed\AppData\Roaming\Python\Python313\site-packages\pip\_internal\commands\install.py", line 309, in run
    options.use_user_site = decide_user_install(
                            ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^
        options.use_user_site,
        ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
    ...<3 lines>...
        isolated_mode=options.isolated_mode,
        ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
    )
    ^
  File "C:\Users\ed\AppData\Roaming\Python\Python313\site-packages\pip\_internal\commands\install.py", line 722, in decide_user_install
    if site_packages_writable(root=root_path, isolated=isolated_mode):
       ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "C:\Users\ed\AppData\Roaming\Python\Python313\site-packages\pip\_internal\commands\install.py", line 666, in site_packages_writable
    return all(
        test_writable_dir(d)
        for d in set(get_lib_location_guesses(root=root, isolated=isolated))
    )
  File "C:\Users\ed\AppData\Roaming\Python\Python313\site-packages\pip\_internal\commands\install.py", line 667, in <genexpr>
    test_writable_dir(d)
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^
  File "C:\Users\ed\AppData\Roaming\Python\Python313\site-packages\pip\_internal\utils\filesystem.py", line 90, in test_writable_dir
    return _test_writable_dir_win(path)
  File "C:\Users\ed\AppData\Roaming\Python\Python313\site-packages\pip\_internal\utils\filesystem.py", line 114, in _test_writable_dir_win
    os.unlink(file)
    ~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^
PermissionError: [WinError 5] Access is denied: 'C:\\Python313\\Lib\\site-packages\\accesstest_deleteme_fishfingers_custard_4isngk'

[semohr]

This looks like a permission issue to me as you are trying to install beets globally. There should be multiple ways to fix this. You might be able to pick one depending on your setup:

• use an virtual environment for the install (we recommend pipx in our guides)
• install beets as root
• install beets as user pip install --user beets
• change the folder permissions of C:\\Python313\\Lib\\site-packages

I'm not a windows user, hope this helps tho.