pip and conda stop working after installing library from PyPI

[jboynyc]

On a fresh install of Anaconda (Py 3.4), having run conda update conda and having used conda to install pymongo, I then ran pip install python-instagram to install an additional library straight from PyPI. Now I am getting this error every time I try to run pip or conda:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Users\jboy1\Applications\Anaconda\Scripts\pip-script.py", line 3, in <module>
    from pip import main
  File "C:\Users\jboy1\Applications\Anaconda\lib\site-packages\pip\__init__.py", line 11, in <module>
    from pip.vcs import git, mercurial, subversion, bazaar  # noqa
  File "C:\Users\jboy1\Applications\Anaconda\lib\site-packages\pip\vcs\mercurial.py", line 9, in <module>
    from pip.download import path_to_url
  File "C:\Users\jboy1\Applications\Anaconda\lib\site-packages\pip\download.py", line 22, in <module>
    from pip._vendor import requests, six
  File "C:\Users\jboy1\Applications\Anaconda\lib\site-packages\pip\_vendor\requests\__init__.py", line 58, in <module>
    from . import utils
  File "C:\Users\jboy1\Applications\Anaconda\lib\site-packages\pip\_vendor\requests\utils.py", line 25, in <module>
    from .compat import parse_http_list as _parse_list_header
  File "C:\Users\jboy1\Applications\Anaconda\lib\site-packages\pip\_vendor\requests\compat.py", line 77, in <module>
    import simplejson as json
  File "C:\Users\jboy1\Applications\Anaconda\lib\site-packages\simplejson\__init__.py", line 112, in <module>
    from .scanner import JSONDecodeError
  File "C:\Users\jboy1\Applications\Anaconda\lib\site-packages\simplejson\scanner.py", line 10, in <module>
    c_make_scanner = _import_c_make_scanner()
  File "C:\Users\jboy1\Applications\Anaconda\lib\site-packages\simplejson\scanner.py", line 6, in _import_c_make_scanner
    from simplejson._speedups import make_scanner
UnicodeDecodeError: 'utf-8' codec can't decode byte 0x83 in position 4: invalid start byte

I've deleted everything having to do with the Instagram library from site-packages, but the error persists. What could be causing this?

(This is on Windows 7.)

[badgh]

I have the same problem. Have you resolved it?

[asmeurer]

Perhaps pip uninstall simplejson. Or if that fails with the error delete the simplejson directory from site-packages.

[badgh]

pip uninstall simplejson had the same error. I deleted the simplejson directory, now anaconda works. thanks. but still don't know what was the problem.

[asmeurer]

I don't know either. Somehow simplejson broke things.

[jboynyc]

I solved it by reinstalling, but good to know that deleting simplejson from site-packages does the trick, too.

[tswicegood]

Sounds like this is fixed and/or out of our hands. Should we close this @asmeurer?

[ccordoba12]

You're right @tswicegood, there is no problem to be solved here.

[scjody]

Is there any way to deal with this if you need simplejson to be installed? I tried deleting simplejson using the del command then running pip install --force-reinstall --upgrade pip simplejson in the hope that the latest simplejson and pip would work together, but the error persists. Note that this works on other Python installations such as installing from .deb packages on Ubuntu 14.04.

After upgrading pip the problem is even worse - deleting simplejson with the del command now gives:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Users\plotly\Anaconda3\lib\runpy.py", line 170, in _run_module_as_main
    "__main__", mod_spec)
  File "C:\Users\plotly\Anaconda3\lib\runpy.py", line 85, in _run_code
    exec(code, run_globals)
  File "C:\Users\plotly\Anaconda3\Scripts\pip.exe\__main__.py", line 5, in <module>
  File "C:\Users\plotly\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\pip\__init__.py", line 15, in <module>
    from pip.vcs import git, mercurial, subversion, bazaar  # noqa
  File "C:\Users\plotly\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\pip\vcs\mercurial.py", line 11, in <module>
    from pip.download import path_to_url
  File "C:\Users\plotly\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\pip\download.py", line 30, in <module>
    from pip._vendor import requests, six
  File "C:\Users\plotly\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\pip\_vendor\requests\__init__.py", line 59, in <module>
    from .models import Request, Response, PreparedRequest
  File "C:\Users\plotly\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\pip\_vendor\requests\models.py", line 49, in <module>
    json_dumps = json.dumps
AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'dumps'