PermissionError: [Errno 13] in Python

Question

Just starting to learn some Python and I’m having an issue as stated below:

a_file = open('E:Python Win7-64-AMD 3.3Test', encoding='utf-8')

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<pyshell#9>", line 1, in <module>
    a_file = open('E:Python Win7-64-AMD 3.3Test', encoding='utf-8')
PermissionError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: 'E:\Python Win7-64-AMD 3.3\Test

Seems to be a file permission error, if any one can shine some light it would be greatly appreciated.

NOTE: not sure how Python and Windows files work but I’m logged in to Windows as Admin and the folder has admin permissions.

I have tried changing .exe properties to run as Admin.

Asked By: BenniMcBeno

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Source

Answer 1

When doing;

a_file = open('E:Python Win7-64-AMD 3.3Test', encoding='utf-8')

…you’re trying to open a directory as a file, which may (and on most non UNIX file systems will) fail.

Your other example though;

a_file = open('E:Python Win7-64-AMD 3.3Testa.txt', encoding='utf-8')

should work well if you just have the permission on a.txt. You may want to use a raw (r-prefixed) string though, to make sure your path does not contain any escape characters like n that will be translated to special characters.

a_file = open(r'E:Python Win7-64-AMD 3.3Testa.txt', encoding='utf-8')

Answered By: Joachim Isaksson

Answer 2

For me, I was writing to a file that is opened in Excel.

Answered By: Kai Wang

Answer 3

I encountered this problem when I accidentally tried running my python module through the command prompt while my working directory was C:WindowsSystem32 instead of the usual directory from which I run my python module

Answered By: Toldry

Answer 4

For me, I got this error when I was trying to write a file to a folder and wanted to make sure the folder existed. I accidentally used:

path = Path("path/to/my/file.txt")
path.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
with open(path, "w") as file:
    ...

but the second line means "make a directory at this exact path (and make its parents too, without throwing errors for them existing already)". The third line then throws a PermissionError, because you can’t use open() on a directory path, of course! The second line should have been:

path.parent.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)

Answered By: Mew

PermissionError: [Errno 13] in Python

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