If you are getting a PermissionError when running pyinstaller, and you have exausted the obvious culprits (ensuring you indeed do have the necessary permissions, etc), just update your pyinstaller version. To update pyinstaller, run pip install pyinstaller --upgrade. This fixed it for me.

If you get the following error (or a similar one) when running pyinstaller:

PermissionError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '<some path>\\<yourapp>\\build\\<yourapp>\\<yourapp>.exe'

After you have exausted all obvious options, such as:

  • ensuring that you actually have the necessary permissions for the specified path
  • ensuring nothing else is using the specified path
  • etc

You may need to just update your pyinstaller version (this fixed it for me). To update pyinstaller:

pip install pyinstaller --upgrade

(Obviously, you can use a similar syntax to upgrade any other package as well)