In my case, using a pre-existing virtualenv did not work in the editor - all modules were marked as unresolved reference (running naturally works, as this is outside of the editor's config, just running an external process (not so easy for debugging)).
Turns out PyCharm did not add the site-packages directory... the fix is to manually add it.

On Pycharm professional 2022.3

Open File -> Settings -> Python Interpreter, open the drop-down and pick "Show All..." (to edit the config) (1), right click your interpreter (2), click "Show Interpreter Paths" (3).

In that screen, manually add the "site-packages" directory of the virtual environment [looks like .../venv/lib/python3.8/site-packages (4) (I've added the "Lib" also, for a good measure); once done and saved, they will turn up in the interpreter paths.

The other thing that won't hurt to do is select "Associate this virtual environment with the current project", in the interpreter's edit box.

Answer from Todor Minakov on Stack Overflow
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JetBrains
jetbrains.com โ€บ help โ€บ pycharm โ€บ package-installation-issues.html
Package installation issues | PyCharm Documentation
November 28, 2025 - Open the system terminal (not the PyCharm's built-in one) and run the following commands: . <venv path>/bin/activate pip install <package name>
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JetBrains
intellij-support.jetbrains.com โ€บ hc โ€บ en-us โ€บ articles โ€บ 360010202240-PyCharm-can-t-install-import-a-package-library-module
PyCharm can't install/import a package/library/module โ€“ IDEs Support (IntelliJ Platform) | JetBrains
February 5, 2020 - 1. The whole console output including the executed command in PyCharm. 2. A screenshot of your Project Interpreter including the list of installed packages. If it's not possible to capture all of the installed packages in one picture, it's better to provide a text file (pip list or pip freeze > requirements.txt will do the trick https://pip.pypa.io/en/stable/user_guide/)
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Reddit
reddit.com โ€บ r/learnpython โ€บ pip installed packages not working in pycharm?
r/learnpython on Reddit: pip Installed Packages not working in PyCharm?
March 12, 2018 -

So, I just got into python (actually, computers in general) and am a complete computer noob. I was messing around in the IDLE that comes with Python. I pip installed pygame from the command prompt, and checked site-packages to make sure I had it. I imported it into the IDLE, and everything worked fine. I then downloaded pycharm and tried to import pygame from there, but I got an error saying that their were no modules named 'pygame'. I know you can install packages inside pycharm, but then those packages can't be opened inside the IDLE. Does anyone know how I can make PyCharm import packages from ones that I pip installed? I am running Python 3.6 on a Windows 10 if that helps.

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JetBrains
intellij-support.jetbrains.com โ€บ hc โ€บ en-us โ€บ community โ€บ posts โ€บ 360008168000-PyCharm-doesn-t-recognize-installed-modules
PyCharm doesn't recognize installed modules โ€“ IDEs Support (IntelliJ Platform) | JetBrains
I found out, that `__init__.py` file were not shown as python files in project tree. The issue was that `__init__.py` was included in Settings --> File Types --> "File type auto-detected by file content". Removing it from there solved the issue ...
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Reddit
reddit.com โ€บ r/learnpython โ€บ can't install package to pycharm but can pip install it?
Can't install package to PyCharm but can pip install it? : r/learnpython
December 31, 2019 - See if these are the same. If not, change your pycharm interpreter to be the same. Or, you're doing something funky with virtual environments. Go to "terminal" near the bottom of your pycharm. Run 'deactivate venv' or whatever it's named, and try pip installing from there.
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JetBrains
intellij-support.jetbrains.com โ€บ hc โ€บ en-us โ€บ community โ€บ posts โ€บ 360001810940-PyCharm-does-not-recognize-installed-package
PyCharm does not recognize installed package โ€“ IDEs Support (IntelliJ Platform) | JetBrains
Correct, I was unable to install the packages to my venv in Pycharm but was able to successfully install using the system terminal using the same venv. I think this is more of an issue with the specific package as I was unable to install the package by just calling its name in pip in the system terminal.
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YouTube
youtube.com โ€บ watch
Pip installed packages not showing in Pycharm | Python packages in Pycharm | Fix - YouTube
Hi everyone!Hope it was helpful if so share this video to your friends.Thank you so much for watching..Peace.
Published: May 30, 2020
Find elsewhere
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JetBrains
intellij-support.jetbrains.com โ€บ hc โ€บ en-us โ€บ community โ€บ posts โ€บ 360000020759-PyCharm-CE-not-recognizing-installed-packages
PyCharm CE not recognizing installed packages โ€“ IDEs Support (IntelliJ Platform) | JetBrains
June 13, 2018 - After installation from the command line Pycharm still does not recognize these packages. Screen shots and idea.log attached. ... Hi David. PyCharms' error seems to be PY-29395, it should be fixed in 2018.1.4, 2017.3.6, 2017.2.7 and 2017.1.8. According to your screenshot, PyCharm uses virtualenv in /Users/daviddevon/section10/venv while in the terminal you use the first pip in PATH, which is from anaconda3 installation.
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JetBrains
intellij-support.jetbrains.com โ€บ hc โ€บ en-us โ€บ community โ€บ posts โ€บ 9711214236434-Terminal-cannot-find-python-or-pip-anymore
Terminal cannot find python or pip anymore โ€“ IDEs Support (IntelliJ Platform) | JetBrains
January 22, 2023 - To install packages in pycharm I have always just opened the terminal and pip installed what I need. But since the latest version: Build #PC-223.8214.51 this often don't work. I open a terminal and it cannot recognize pip or python commands. I can start the python console and run my code without problem. So the python Im using is fine. It is only the terminal that seem not ...
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JetBrains
youtrack.jetbrains.com โ€บ issue โ€บ PY-24828
Pycharm doesn't recognize package installed via pip -e : PY-24828
The import executes correctly when run from inside Pycharm or from the command line, so the underlying virtual environment is set up correctly. PY-171.4694.38, JRE 1.8.0_112-release-736-b21x32 JetBrains s.r.o, OS Windows 10(x86) v10.0 , screens 1920x1080, 1920x1080 ... Unresolved references to editable packages (pip install -e) after installing before restart due to .egg-link and new entries in sys.path
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JetBrains
youtrack.jetbrains.com โ€บ issue โ€บ PY-45249 โ€บ PyCharm-doesnt-recognize-pip-installed-whl-libraries
PyCharm doesn't recognize pip installed whl libraries - YouTrack
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JetBrains
youtrack.jetbrains.com โ€บ issue โ€บ PY-57754 โ€บ PyCharm-2022.3-does-not-recognize-any-installed-packages-with-Targets-API-disabled
PyCharm 2022.3 does not recognize any installed ...
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JetBrains
intellij-support.jetbrains.com โ€บ hc โ€บ en-us โ€บ community โ€บ posts โ€บ 360003017500-PyCharm-CE-Successfully-installed-packages-not-installing
PyCharm CE: 'Successfully' installed packages not installing โ€“ IDEs Support (IntelliJ Platform) | JetBrains
February 10, 2019 - No change to the package list, and package is not installed. ... Please try File | Invalidate Caches/Restart... . If doesn't help, run pip list for this interpreter to see if they are actually installed.