# Conda: cannot remove intel channel

**URL:** <https://forum.anaconda.com/t/conda-cannot-remove-intel-channel/107687>\
**Category:** Packages & Environments\
**Created:** [October 20, 2025, 12:35pm UTC](https://forum.anaconda.com/t/conda-cannot-remove-intel-channel/107687 "2025-10-20T12:35:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bernard.billoud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/00a5b5/32.png) [@bernard.billoud](https://forum.anaconda.com/u/bernard.billoud)\
**Post date:** [October 20, 2025, 12:35pm UTC](https://forum.anaconda.com/t/conda-cannot-remove-intel-channel/107687/1 "2025-10-20T12:35:15Z")

</div>

Whenever I try to install a package (using libmamba as solver), I get the message:

```auto
Collecting package metadata (repodata.json): failed

UnavailableInvalidChannel: HTTP 403 FORBIDDEN for channel intel <https://conda.anaconda.org/intel>

```

I know this channel is not alive any more. However, if I try to remove it using:

```auto
$ conda config --remove channels intel

```

I get:

```auto
CondaKeyError: 'channels': value 'intel' not present in config

```

Indeed, the intel channel does not appear in the list of channels:

```auto
$ conda config --show channels
channels:
  - defaults
  - conda-forge
  - nvidia
  - pytorch

```

And it is not present in my `.condarc` file.

So, How can I remove the intel channel from the list of channels and get rid of the error message issued by limamba?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![danyeaw](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/anaconda/user_avatar/forum.anaconda.com/danyeaw/32/6559_2.png) [@danyeaw](https://forum.anaconda.com/u/danyeaw)\
**Post date:** [October 23, 2025, 1:50pm UTC](https://forum.anaconda.com/t/conda-cannot-remove-intel-channel/107687/2 "2025-10-23T13:50:19Z")

</div>

Hi , welcome to the forum! The solver may be finding channels that aren’t specifically configured based on packages that were originally installed from the intel channel. I would try cleaning your package cache first with:

```auto
conda clean --all

```

If that doesn’t resolve it, you could also see if you can see intel listed with any package:

```auto
conda list --show-channel-urls

```

If a package is shown with intel as the channel, you could then uninstall it, update it, or pin it to a specific version on a different channel.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bernard.billoud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/00a5b5/32.png) [@bernard.billoud](https://forum.anaconda.com/u/bernard.billoud)\
**Post date:** [October 28, 2025, 10:42am UTC](https://forum.anaconda.com/t/conda-cannot-remove-intel-channel/107687/3 "2025-10-28T10:42:24Z")

</div>

Thank you very much for your reply (I apologize for the delay; I thought I would receive an email notifying me that someone had replied, so I didn’t check the forum regularly).

I removed the cache, then `conda list` (the `--show-channel-urls` option did not change the output) showed indeed some packages provided by the intel channel:

```auto
# Name Version Build Channel
intelpython 2023.2.0 0 intel
libsqlite 3.42.0 h2797004_0 intel
libstdcxx-ng 12.2.0 h46fd767_19 intel
libuuid 2.38.1 h0b41bf4_0 intel
libxml2 2.10.3 h6b0140f_0 intel
libzlib 1.2.13 hd590300_5 intel
python 3.10.12 hef7c979_1 intel
python_abi 3.10 2_cp310 intel
pytorch 2.0.1 py310_xpu_0 intel
zlib 1.2.13 hd590300_5 intel

```

So I wanted to uninstall them. But it is impossible, due to the intel channel again. For instance:

```auto
$ conda uninstall intelpython
Channels:
 - defaults
 - conda-forge
 - nvidia
 - pytorch
 - bioconda
 - intel
Platform: linux-64
Collecting package metadata (repodata.json): failed

UnavailableInvalidChannel: HTTP 403 FORBIDDEN for channel intel <https://conda.anaconda.org/intel>

The channel is not accessible or is invalid.

You will need to adjust your conda configuration to proceed.
Use `conda config --show channels` to view your configuration's current state,
and use `conda config --show-sources` to view config file locations.

```

It’s the same with `conda remove` instead of `conda uninstall`.  
One more thing: the output of `conda info` does not mention intel at all.  
So I cannot figure out what tells conda to use it as a channel.