Python error "ImportError: No module named"

Question

Python is installed in a local directory.

My directory tree looks like this:

(local directory)/site-packages/toolkit/interface.py

My code is in here:

(local directory)/site-packages/toolkit/examples/mountain.py

To run the example, I write python mountain.py, and in the code I have:

from toolkit.interface import interface

And I get the error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "mountain.py", line 28, in ?
    from toolkit.interface import interface
ImportError: No module named toolkit.interface

I have already checked sys.path and there I have the directory /site-packages. Also, I have the file __init__.py.bin in the toolkit folder to indicate to Python that this is a package. I also have a __init__.py.bin in the examples directory.

I do not know why Python cannot find the file when it is in sys.path. Any ideas? Can it be a permissions problem? Do I need some execution permission?

Check that you have read permission to that file from python. See: http://stackoverflow.com/a/20999950/1657225 — cSn, Jan 08 '14 at 15:39
Please be sure to mark your directory as "Resources Root" to let PyCharm know this is a package. — Yushan ZHANG, Oct 18 '17 at 13:41
The problem in my case was that there was the permission to newly installed modules were not `755`. That was because `umask` on the machine was `0027` due to which the `others` did not have `read` permission causing module to not be read. Adding `read` permission fixed my problem. It's worth checking the permission of the target directory post-installation. — anu, Nov 27 '17 at 00:46
Try to blow url : https://stackoverflow.com/questions/47887614/how-to-import-module-or-a-file-from-subfolder-in-python/47887660#47887660 — Rawan-25, Dec 19 '17 at 13:28
maybe local directory name is `interface` (have been a conflict). — Benyamin Jafari, Aug 13 '18 at 09:16
check things like: is python2 being used instead of 3? Do you files have the proper line ending configured? Are packages properly declared? — DGoiko, Sep 28 '19 at 15:46

score 296 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 04 '08 at 00:17

296

Based on your comments to orip's post, I guess this is what happened:

You edited __init__.py on windows.
The windows editor added something non-printing, perhaps a carriage-return (end-of-line in Windows is CR/LF; in unix it is LF only), or perhaps a CTRL-Z (windows end-of-file).
You used WinSCP to copy the file to your unix box.
WinSCP thought: "This has something that's not basic text; I'll put a .bin extension to indicate binary data."
The missing __init__.py (now called __init__.py.bin) means python doesn't understand toolkit as a package.
You create __init__.py in the appropriate directory and everything works... ?

answered Dec 04 '08 at 00:17

John Fouhy

37,154
18
59
73

56

Also, python -c 'import sys; print sys.path' helps -- sometimes the user has placed the files in a path not scanned. – mikebabcock Feb 28 '12 at 15:06
1

I'm using the same thing except WinSCP didn't append `.bin`. – user Oct 31 '13 at 06:41
10

if I have a empty "\_\_init\_\_.py" will the same thing happen? – dietbacon Dec 14 '14 at 01:02
3

OMG, You rule! This my story: 1. You edited __init__.py on windows 2. It added a TAB instead spaces 3. You google a lot until finding this post! ;) – GBrian Mar 01 '16 at 08:21
3

For me the issue was I was using `python driver.py` when I should have been using `python3 driver.py` since I installed with `pip3`. – Eric Wiener Mar 17 '19 at 20:26
As @EricWiener pointed out, using python 2 may cause this issue aswell. He may be using #!/usr/bin/env python to detect the python environment, and have python2 instead of python3 mapped, which causes that error in some packages – DGoiko Sep 28 '19 at 15:44
Whats inside __init__.py ? – Dhruv Apr 07 '20 at 00:11
to add @mikebabcock comment, from the path, in my case, there is precedent path containing the folder that masks the actual folder I intend to use. – kursun Dec 21 '20 at 08:52

score 79 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 03 '08 at 21:50

79

Does

(local directory)/site-packages/toolkit

have a __init__.py?

To make import walk through your directories every directory must have a __init__.py file.

answered Dec 03 '08 at 21:50

igorgue

16,292
12
35
52

1

Good point! Remark: Since Python 3.3, any directory on sys.path with a name that matches the package name will be recognised. – PatrickT Jun 25 '16 at 16:59
2

isn't this only necessary for relative path references? why **must** every directory have it ? – Sonic Soul Mar 04 '19 at 17:12

score 68 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 22 '14 at 03:52

I ran into something very similar when I did this exercise in LPTHW; I could never get Python to recognise that I had files in the directory I was calling from. But I was able to get it to work in the end. What I did, and what I recommend, is to try this:

(NOTE: From your initial post, I am assuming you are using an *NIX-based machine and are running things from the command line, so this advice is tailored to that. Since I run Ubuntu, this is what I did)

1) Change directory (cd) to the directory above the directory where your files are. In this case, you're trying to run the mountain.py file, and trying to call the toolkit.interface.py module, which are in separate directories. In this case, you would go to the directory that contains paths to both those files (or in other words, the closest directory that the paths of both those files share). Which in this case is the toolkit directory.

2) When you are in the tookit directory, enter this line of code on your command line:

export PYTHONPATH=.

This sets your PYTHONPATH to ".", which basically means that your PYTHONPATH will now look for any called files within the directory you are currently in, (and more to the point, in the sub-directory branches of the directory you are in. So it doesn't just look in your current directory, but in all the directories that are in your current directory).

3) After you've set your PYTHONPATH in the step above, run your module from your current directory (the toolkit directory). Python should now find and load the modules you specified.

Hope this helps. I was quite frustrated with this myself.

This worked for me. Also COMPLETELY simplified my PYTHONPATH frustrations, as I'd have to update it to an absolute path each time I switch machines. Thankyouthankyouthankyou. — the_e, Jun 15 '16 at 16:17
Be careful if you have third party or custom library references in an already existing `PYTHONPATH` environment variable. If you do the instead run: `set PYTHONPATH=%PYTHONPATH%;.;` to append `.` to the `PYTHONPATH` and then `echo %PYTHONPATH%` which should display `path\to\custom\library;.;`. Then run your application from the application directory with `python applicationlaunchfile.py`. — EliSquared, Dec 07 '20 at 21:12

score 42 · Answer 4 · edited Jan 19 '17 at 19:10

42

On *nix, also make sure that PYTHONPATH is configured correctly, especially that it has this format:

 .:/usr/local/lib/python

(Mind the .: at the beginning, so that it can search on the current directory, too.)

It may also be in other locations, depending on the version:

 .:/usr/lib/python
 .:/usr/lib/python2.6
 .:/usr/lib/python2.7 and etc.

edited Jan 19 '17 at 19:10

Peter Mortensen

28,342
21
95
123

answered Mar 04 '11 at 21:14

Renaud

14,430
4
73
75

6

It may also be `.:/usr/lib/python`, `.:/usr/lib/python2.6`, `.:/usr/lib/python2.7` and etc. depending on the version – Nikita Volkov Apr 16 '12 at 08:26
For me, the module is in in /usr/local/lib/python3.4/dist-packages but when I type python3 in the terminal (ubuntu), and try to import it, it doesn't allow me, saying that it doesn't exist. "ImportError: no module x exists" – user65165 Aug 24 '16 at 14:53
Adding `#!/usr/bin/python` at the end of a file should work too, right? – Nearoo Nov 06 '16 at 13:32
1

@Nearoo I don't think that will work. Plus usually this shebang is added at the top of a file. – Renaud Nov 09 '16 at 11:05
**-1 Having Python installation directory listed in PYTHONPATH is plainly wrong and shows lack of understanding of what this variable is meant for.** – Piotr Dobrogost Jan 12 '17 at 13:08
2

On MacOSX fixed it by adding PYTHONPATH=/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages to startup scripts. – Johan Snowgoose Apr 12 '17 at 20:16

score 25 · Answer 5 · edited Apr 16 '19 at 21:19

25

You are reading this answer says that your __init__.py is in the right place, you have installed all the dependencies and you are still getting the ImportError.

I was facing a similar issue except that my program would run fine when ran using PyCharm but the above error when I would run it from the terminal. After digging further, I found out that PYTHONPATH didn't have the entry for the project directory. So, I set PYTHONPATH per Import statement works on PyCharm but not from terminal:

export PYTHONPATH=$PYTHONPATH:`pwd`  (OR your project root directory)

There's another way to do this using sys.path as:

import sys
sys.path.insert(0,'<project directory>') OR
sys.path.append('<project directory>')

You can use insert/append based on the order in which you want your project to be searched.

edited Apr 16 '19 at 21:19

jww

83,594
69
338
732

answered Feb 08 '19 at 16:57

avp

1,888
23
27

1

This is what I did as a workaround. But I still don't understand why this should be necessary. I have, in my Pipfile, a relative path module that cannot be detected (e.g. I get the ImportError) without said workaround. – Kevin Friedheim Mar 19 '21 at 14:47
This is great. A general way to apply it if you're sure you're in the right path: ```sys.path.append(os.getcwd())``` – Matt Elgazar Apr 12 '21 at 04:39

score 24 · Answer 6 · edited Jan 19 '17 at 19:09

24

I solved my own problem, and I will write a summary of the things that were wrong and the solution:

The file needs to be called exactly __init__.py. If the extension is different such as in my case .py.bin then Python cannot move through the directories and then it cannot find the modules. To edit the files you need to use a Linux editor, such as vi or nano. If you use a Windows editor this will write some hidden characters.

Another problem that was affecting it was that I had another Python version installed by the root, so if someone is working with a local installation of python, be sure that the Python installation that is running the programs is the local Python. To check this, just do which python, and see if the executable is the one that is in your local directory. If not, change the path, but be sure that the local Python directory is before than the other Python.

edited Jan 19 '17 at 19:09

Peter Mortensen

28,342
21
95
123

answered Dec 04 '08 at 01:11

Eduardo

17,165
20
59
71

A problem I got was that a module was (re)installed by pip with only the root user to access it, so the user that ran the program didn't see it. – Jānis Elmeris Jun 08 '12 at 13:26
@JānisElmeris can you elaborate more on the above comment, I think I am also facing a similar error. I have my `__init__.py` files placed in relevant directory but I manually installed a package using `setup.py`. How did installing a new package would interfere imports. – Krishna Oza May 09 '18 at 05:34
@darth_coder, sorry, that was six years ago and I don't remember the case. Also, I'm dealing with Python very little, not at all lately. From what I wrote, I can just think that I installed a package as root, which changed the permissions so that other users didn't have the access they had before. – Jānis Elmeris May 09 '18 at 14:59

score 22 · Answer 7 · answered Jan 04 '17 at 17:53

22

Using PyCharm (part of the JetBrains suite) you need to define your script directory as Source:
Right Click > Mark Directory as > Sources Root

answered Jan 04 '17 at 17:53

MonoThreaded

9,824
9
63
98

score 20 · Answer 8 · answered Sep 18 '17 at 15:30

20

an easy solution is to install the module using python -m pip install <library-name> instead of pip install <library-name> you may use sudo in case of admin restrictions

answered Sep 18 '17 at 15:30

Badr Bellaj

6,763
1
29
30

2

What does `python -m` achieve in front of `pip install`? – sporc Feb 13 '18 at 07:39
1

@sporc - when you use the -m command-line flag, Python will import a module or package for you and then run it as a script. When you don't use the -m flag, the file you named is run as just a script. – Tony Ciccarone Mar 30 '18 at 16:46
Not sure what this answer is trying to say wrt `python -m pip...` working, but `pip...` did not: they are effectively the same thing, assuming they're actually in the same `python` directory. Possibly, the observed situation was that the stand-alone `pip` program wasn't available in some older python release (but it is now in latest 2.7 & 3.x). In that case, the `python` was in a local virtualenv and `pip` wasn't, so `python -m pip install` would install in the local virtualenv, whereas `pip` would try to install in the system python (and fail w/o sudo). In any case, it doesn't make sense. – michael Sep 20 '18 at 01:23

score 20 · Answer 9 · edited Dec 30 '19 at 02:10

20

For me, it was something really stupid. I installed the library using pip3 install but was running my program as python program.py as opposed to python3 program.py.

edited Dec 30 '19 at 02:10

Nicolas Gervais

21,923
10
61
96

answered Aug 22 '19 at 16:02

kev

2,095
2
11
34

worked like a charm for me :). – Tabz May 07 '21 at 15:45

score 19 · Answer 10 · answered Dec 03 '08 at 21:31

19

To mark a directory as a package you need a file named __init__.py, does this help?

answered Dec 03 '08 at 21:31

orip

66,082
20
111
144

I already have a file called __init__.py.bin, If I change the name to __init__.py, then I get this error: /__init__.py", line 1 "utilities", "demo"] ^ SyntaxError: invalid syntax – Eduardo Dec 03 '08 at 21:38
What's in __init__.py? Post that as part of your question, please. – S.Lott Dec 03 '08 at 21:47
There is nothing, it is empty, It was with the package that I download, do I need to write something in the file?. – Eduardo Dec 03 '08 at 21:50
@S.Lott: you don't need to put anything in your __init__.py right? – igorgue Dec 03 '08 at 21:52
1

@Eduardo. Your __init__.py gets an error. And you say it's empty. That's difficult to reconcile. And it can't be called __init__.py.bin -- Python would ignore this file. Typically, it can have nothing in it. – S.Lott Dec 03 '08 at 21:57
You were right Lott I edited the file with a windows editor and it wrote some hide characters, now I have create new files with vi. – Eduardo Dec 03 '08 at 22:09
@Eduardo: You may want to get Programmer's Notepad or Komodo Edit or something that edits pure text with no hidden special characters. They may be easier to use than vi. – S.Lott Dec 03 '08 at 22:17
Thanks for the advice I usually use nano for edition, the reason why I used a windows editor is because I am working in a cluster, and I use WinSCP to move files and sometimes I use that editor for change files. – Eduardo Dec 03 '08 at 22:21

score 7 · Answer 11 · edited Jun 28 '13 at 12:01

Yup. You need the directory to contain the __init__.py file, which is the file that initializes the package. Here, have a look at this.

The __init__.py files are required to make Python treat the directories as containing packages; this is done to prevent directories with a common name, such as string, from unintentionally hiding valid modules that occur later on the module search path. In the simplest case, __init__.py can just be an empty file, but it can also execute initialization code for the package or set the __all__ variable, described later.

score 7 · Answer 12 · answered May 11 '19 at 19:34

7

To all those who still have this issue. I believe Pycharm gets confused with imports. For me, when i write 'from namespace import something', the previous line gets underlined in red, signaling that there is an error, but works. However ''from .namespace import something' doesn't get underlined, but also doesn't work.

Try

try:
    from namespace import something 
except NameError:
    from .namespace import something

answered May 11 '19 at 19:34

AKJ

576
1
6
14

2

The first is python 2 syntax, the second is python 3. – Tanya Branagan Aug 02 '19 at 13:37

score 6 · Answer 13 · answered Jan 09 '14 at 19:45

You must have the file __ init__.py in the same directory where it's the file that you are importing.
You can not try to import a file that has the same name and be a file from 2 folders configured on the PYTHONPATH.

eg: /etc/environment

PYTHONPATH=$PYTHONPATH:/opt/folder1:/opt/folder2

/opt/folder1/foo

/opt/folder2/foo

And, if you are trying to import foo file, python will not know which one you want.

from foo import ... >>> importerror: no module named foo

score 6 · Answer 14 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:18

My two cents:

enter image description here

Spit:

Traceback (most recent call last):
      File "bash\bash.py", line 454, in main
        import bosh
      File "Wrye Bash Launcher.pyw", line 63, in load_module
        mod = imp.load_source(fullname,filename+ext,fp)
      File "bash\bosh.py", line 69, in <module>
        from game.oblivion.RecordGroups import MobWorlds, MobDials, MobICells, \
    ImportError: No module named RecordGroups

This confused the hell out of me - went through posts and posts suggesting ugly syspath hacks (as you see my __init__.py were all there). Well turns out that game/oblivion.py and game/oblivion was confusing python which spit out the rather unhelpful "No module named RecordGroups". I'd be interested in a workaround and/or links documenting this (same name) behavior -> EDIT (2017.01.24) - have a look at What If I Have a Module and a Package With The Same Name? Interestingly normally packages take precedence but apparently our launcher violates this.

EDIT (2015.01.17): I did not mention we use a custom launcher dissected here.

more like the path is off. `game.oblivion.RecordGroups !== game/oblivion/patchers/RecordGroups.py` May want to fix that with appending your python code to use: `game.oblivion.patchers.RecordGroups` — Dwight Spencer, Oct 12 '15 at 17:27
@DwightSpencer: I am sure I imported the "RecordGroups" in `game.oblivion.__init__.py` but may have to check this — Mr_and_Mrs_D, Oct 12 '15 at 18:09

score 4 · Answer 15 · answered May 30 '14 at 22:50

4

Linux: Imported modules are located in /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages

If you're using a module compiled in C, don't forget to chmod the .so file after sudo setup.py install.

sudo chmod 755 /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/*.so

answered May 30 '14 at 22:50

KrisWebDev

8,674
4
32
54

score 4 · Answer 16 · answered May 02 '17 at 06:41

If you have tried all methods provided above but failed, maybe your module has the same name as a built-in module. Or, a module with the same name existing in a folder that has a high priority in sys.path than your module's.

To debug, say your from foo.bar import baz complaints ImportError: No module named bar. Changing to import foo; print foo, which will show the path of foo. Is it what you expect?

If not, Either rename foo or use absolute imports.

For me, this yields `ImportError: No module named foo`. – alex Oct 11 '17 at 11:44 — alex, Oct 11 '17 at 11:44

score 4 · Answer 17 · answered Feb 18 '19 at 03:35

In my case, because I'm using PyCharm and PyCharm create a 'venv' for every project in project folder, but it is only a mini env of python. Although you have installed the libraries you need in Python, but in your custom project 'venv', it is not available. This is the real reason of 'ImportError: No module named xxxxxx' occurred in PyCharm. To resolve this issue, you must add libraries to your project custom env by these steps:

In PyCharm, from menu 'File'->Settings
In Settings dialog, Project: XXXProject->Project Interpreter
Click "Add" button, it will show you 'Available Packages' dialog
Search your library, click 'Install Package'
Then, all you needed package will be installed in you project custom 'venv' folder.

Enjoy.

score 3 · Answer 18 · edited Jan 19 '17 at 19:17

3

In my case, the problem was I was linking to debug python & boost::Python, which requires that the extension be FooLib_d.pyd, not just FooLib.pyd; renaming the file or updating CMakeLists.txt properties fixed the error.

edited Jan 19 '17 at 19:17

Peter Mortensen

28,342
21
95
123

answered Sep 04 '13 at 02:52

peter karasev

2,406
1
26
37

Rich · Answer 19 · 2018-03-28T09:13:13.133

3

My problem was that I added the directory with the __init__.py file to PYTHONPATH, when actually I needed to add its parent directory.

edited Mar 28 '18 at 09:13

answered Mar 27 '18 at 12:41

Rich

468
1
4
11

score 2 · Answer 20 · answered Jul 21 '16 at 18:51

2

Fixed my issue by writing print (sys.path) and found out that python was using out of date packages despite a clean install. Deleting these made python automatically use the correct packages.

answered Jul 21 '16 at 18:51

dukevin

19,591
32
77
107

score 0 · Answer 21 · edited Aug 08 '14 at 08:59

After just suffering the same issue I found my resolution was to delete all pyc files from my project, it seems like these cached files were somehow causing this error.

Easiest way I found to do this was to navigate to my project folder in Windows explorer and searching for *.pyc, then selecting all (Ctrl+A) and deleting them (Ctrl+X).

Its possible I could have resolved my issues by just deleting the specific pyc file but I never tried this

score 0 · Answer 22 · answered Dec 05 '15 at 07:21

I faced the same problem: Import error. In addition the library've been installed 100% correctly. The source of the problem was that on my PC 3 version of python (anaconda packet) have been installed). This is why the library was installed no to the right place. After that I just changed to the proper version of python in the my IDE PyCharm.

Toivo Säwén · Answer 23 · 2016-12-13T13:02:16.540

0

I had the same error. It was caused by somebody creating a folder in the same folder as my script, the name of which conflicted with a module I was importing from elsewhere. Instead of importing the external module, it looked inside this folder which obviously didn't contain the expected modules.

edited Dec 13 '16 at 13:02

answered Dec 13 '16 at 11:45

Toivo Säwén

1,162
2
10
25

score 0 · Answer 24 · answered May 27 '18 at 23:49

I had the same problem (Python 2.7 Linux), I have found the solution and i would like to share it. In my case i had the structure below:

Booklet
-> __init__.py
-> Booklet.py
-> Question.py
default
-> __init_.py
-> main.py

In 'main.py' I had tried unsuccessfully all the combinations bellow:

from Booklet import Question
from Question import Question
from Booklet.Question import Question
from Booklet.Question import *
import Booklet.Question
# and many othet various combinations ...

The solution was much more simple than I thought. I renamed the folder "Booklet" into "booklet" and that's it. Now Python can import the class Question normally by using in 'main.py' the code:

from booklet.Booklet import Booklet
from booklet.Question import Question
from booklet.Question import AnotherClass

From this I can conclude that Package-Names (folders) like 'booklet' must start from lower-case, else Python confuses it with Class names and Filenames.

Apparently, this was not your problem, but John Fouhy's answer is very good and this thread has almost anything that can cause this issue. So, this is one more thing and I hope that maybe this could help others.

score 0 · Answer 25 · answered Jun 29 '18 at 22:57

0

In my case I was including the path to package.egg folder rather than the actual package underneath. I copied the package to top level and it worked.

answered Jun 29 '18 at 22:57

Fakrudeen

5,242
7
38
66

score 0 · Answer 26 · answered Mar 13 '19 at 12:30

0

This worked for me: Created __init__.py file inside parent folder (in your case, inside site-packages folder). And imported like this:

from site-packages.toolkit.interface import interface

Hope it will be useful for you as well !

answered Mar 13 '19 at 12:30

Scott

2,415
3
21
38

Poli · Answer 27 · 2020-01-20T09:25:32.497

0

In linux server try dos2unix script_name

(remove all (if there is any) pyc files with command find . -name '*.pyc' -delete)

and re run in the case if you worked on script on windows

edited Jan 20 '20 at 09:25

answered Jan 17 '20 at 15:07

Poli

55
9

score 0 · Answer 28 · answered Mar 10 '20 at 09:55

In my case, I was using sys.path.insert() to import a local module and was getting module not found from a different library. I had to put sys.path.insert() below the imports that reported module not found. I guess the best practice is to put sys.path.insert() at the bottom of your imports.

score 0 · Answer 29 · answered Oct 17 '20 at 11:36

If you are using a setup script/utility (e.g. setuptools) to deploy your package, don't forget to add the respective files/modules to the installer.

When supported, use find_packages() or similar to automatically add new packages to the setup script. This will absolutely save you from a headache, especially if you put your project aside for some time and then add something later on.

import setuptools

setuptools.setup(
    name="example-pkg",
    version="0.0.1",
    author="Example Author",
    author_email="author@example.com",
    description="A small example package",
    packages=setuptools.find_packages(),
    classifiers=[
        "Programming Language :: Python :: 3",
        "Operating System :: OS Independent",
    ],
    python_requires='>=3.6',
)

(Example taken from setuptools documentation)

score 0 · Answer 30 · answered Feb 17 '21 at 18:47

I've found that changing the name (via GUI) of aliased folders (Mac) can cause issues with loading modules. If the original folder name is changed, remake the symbolic link. I'm unsure how prevalent this behavior may be, but it was frustrating to debug.

score 0 · Answer 31 · answered Apr 12 '21 at 06:59

I have a similar problem. I created a new virtual environment nemed python3.6.

conda create -n python3.6 python=3.6
pip install pandas

everything is ok, but when I run script, a error occuerd

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'pandas'

I found that the metadata of the Python package and cache of pip has been updated, but it does not actually download the pandas package. so I try reistall by pip,

pip uninstall pandas --no-cache-dir
pip install pandas

solved it

Python error "ImportError: No module named"

31 Answers31

Linked

Related