Error after upgrading pip: cannot import name 'main'

681 Asked by shukhdevsingh in Python , Asked on Jun 3, 2021

Whenever I am trying to install any package using pip, I am getting this import error”cannot import name main pip”:

guru@guru-notebook:~$ pip3 install numpy
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/bin/pip3", line 9, in 
from pip import main
ImportError: cannot import name 'main'
guru@guru-notebook:~$ cat `which pip3`
#!/usr/bin/python3
# GENERATED BY DEBIAN
import sys
# Run the main entry point, similarly to how setuptools does it, but because
# we didn't install the actual entry point from setup.py, don't use the
# pkg_resources API.
from pip import main
if __name__ == '__main__':
     sys.exit(main())

It was working fine earlier, I am not sure why it is throwing this error. I have searched about this error, but can't find anything to fix it.

Please let me know if you need any further detail, I will update my question.

Answered by Nora Wimbley

The reason why you are getting this import error “cannot import name main pip” while trying to install any package using pip is that you must have upgraded your system accidentally.

To overcome this error you would not want to upgrade your system and instead use a virtualenv.

And if you want to use pip so you need to recover the pip3 for that you can use

  sudo python3 -m pip uninstall pip

After you uninstall the pip then reinstall it by the below-mentioned command:-

  sudo apt install python3-pip --reinstall.

Error after upgrading pip: cannot import name 'main'

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