[windows] Postgres "psql not recognized as an internal or external command"

For Postgres, I keep getting this error multiple times even though I have already set the location of the bin folder to the path variable in Windows 8. Is there something else I'm missing?

(I can't post pictures since I don't have enough reputation)

Simple solution that hasn't been mentioned on this question: restart your computer after you declare the path variable.

I always have to restart - the path never updates until I do. And when I do restart, the path always is updated.

Even if it is a little bit late, i solved the PATH problem by removing every space.

;C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\9.5\bin;C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\9.5\lib

works for me now.

Make sure that the path actually leads to the executables. I'm using version 11 and it did not work until this was set as the path:

C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\11\bin\bin

Maybe this is how version 11 is structured or I somehow botched the installation but I haven't had a problem since.

Always better to install a previous version or in the installation make sure you specify the '/data' in a separate directory folder "C:\data"

I had your issue and got it working again (on windows 7).

My setup had actually worked at first. I installed postgres and then set up the system PATH variables with C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\9.6\bin; C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\9.6\lib. The psql keyword in the command line gave no errors.

I deleted the PATH variables above one at a time to test if they were both really needed. Psql continued to work after I deleted the lib path, but stopped working after I deleted the bin path. When I returned bin, it still didn't work, and the same with lib. I closed and reopened the command line between tries, and checked the path. The problem lingered even though the path was identical to how it had been when working. I re-pasted it.

I uninstalled and reinstalled postgres. The problem lingered. It finally worked after I deleted the spaces between the "; C:..." in the paths and re-saved.

Not sure if it was really the spaces that were the culprit. Maybe the environment variables just needed to be altered and refreshed after the install.

I'm also still not sure if both lib and bin paths are needed since there seems to be some kind of lingering memory for old path configurations. I don't want to test it again though.

Windows 10

It could be that your server doesn't start automatically on windows 10 and you need to start it yourself after setting your Postgresql path using the following command in cmd:

pg_ctl -D "C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\11.4\data" start

You need to be inside "C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\11.4\bin" directory to execute the above command.

EX:

You still need to be inside the bin directory to work with psql

Enter this path in your System environment variable.

C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\[YOUR PG VERSION]\bin

In this case i'm using version 10. If you check the postgres folder you are going to see your current versions.

In my own case i used the following on separate lines:

C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\10\bin
C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\10\lib

If you tried all the answers and still spinning your heads, don't forget to change the version with your one which you downloaded.

For example, don't simply copy paste

;C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\9.5\bin ;C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\9.5\lib

More clearly,

;C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\[Your Version]\bin ;C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\[Your Version]\lib

I was spinning my heads. Hope this helps.

Find your binaries file where it is saved. get the path in terminal mine is

C:\Users\LENOVO\Documents\postgresql-9.5.21-1-windows-x64-binaries (1)\pgsql\bin

then find your local user data path, it is in mostly

C:\usr\local\pgsql\data

now all we have to hit the following command in the binary terminal path:

C:\Users\LENOVO\Documents\postgresql-9.5.21-1-windows-x64-binaries (1)\pgsql\bin>pg_ctl -D "C:\usr\local\pgsql\data" start

done!