django import error - No module named core.management

Question

Ok, I see plenty of these errors around. I have tried everything I know to do and have yet to figure this out.

I am working on a development server running python 2.5 and Django 1.3. Django 1.3 was installed using python setup.py install after unpacking the tar.gz download.

All works well, I seldom have the need to run manage.py but am trying to use the new staticfiles app and am running into problems.

python manage.py collectstatic
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "manage.py", line 2, in <module>
    from django.core.management import execute_manager
ImportError: No module named core.management

Ok, so I have PATH issue.

From Django install I double check my site-packages directory.

python -c "from distutils.sysconfig import get_python_lib; print get_python_lib()"
/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages

Ok, let's check out what I have, echo $PYTHON_PATH was empty, so I set it

export PYTHON_PATH=/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/django

Still no luck. Lets check what sys.path has to say

>>> import sys
>>> print sys.path
['', '/usr/lib/python2.5', '/usr/lib/python2.5/plat-linux2', '/usr/lib/python2.5/lib-tk', '/usr/lib/python2.5/lib-dynload', '/usr/local/lib/python2.5/site-packages', '/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages', '/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/PIL', '/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/django', '/var/lib/python-support/python2.5']

path is there, I even created /usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/django.pth with contents

cat /usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/django.pth 
/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/django/

Anyone got an clues to what is going on here?

I found a symlink further up the path that was getting in the way, but no on to a new error.

python manage.py collectstatic
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "manage.py", line 14, in <module>
    execute_manager(settings)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 438, in execute_manager
    utility.execute()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 349, in execute
    version=get_version(),
  File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/django/__init__.py", line 12, in get_version
    from django.utils.version import get_svn_revision
ImportError: No module named utils.version

I also tried creating a new project to see if there were any issues there and get the same utils.version error.

Side node: Unode from #django helped me a bit, set up virtualenv on same machine and got past the errors so still not sure what is up with this actual install here, but it seems to not be in the django projects but in the django/python install.

Dispensable

What happens when you type import django into the python shell? – Golden

@Golden - Ahh forgot to throw that in, no complaints from the python shell on import django – Dispensable

Have you ran python manage.py syncdb ? – Golden

@silentmezzo - Not on this machine, did so on my personal machine before moving the project. – Dispensable

Try running it first. This can sometimes cause the error. – Golden

@Golden same issue there, as well as creating a new project. – Dispensable

This looks like an installation problem. I can't pinpoint what the problem is but using a virtualenv to hold your Django install will probably fix the problem. Can you try that? Just get virtualenv, do a virtualenv --no-site-packages ~/env. Then do a . ~/env/bin/activate and then a pip install django==1.3. Try your regular commands after that and see if they work. – Brout

Closing as this does not seem to be an issue with Django or the projects but the server itself. -- and nevermind, I was hoping I could close it myself, but just have the normal close options. – Dispensable

Answer 1

As known this was a path issue.

the base of my custom packages shared a name with a directory set in a /etc/profile. The packages were in a different location however for the webserver. So I removed the offending entries from my $PYTHONPATH and was good to go!

Thanks for the help.

Dispensable

Answer 2

If, like me, you are running your django in a virtualenv, and getting this error, look at your manage.py. The first line should define the python executable used to run the script. This should be the path to your virtualenv's python, but it is something wrong like /usr/bin/python, which is not the same path and will use the global python environment (and packages will be missing). Just change the path into the path to the python executable in your virtualenv.

You can also replace your shebang line with #!/usr/bin/env python. This should use the proper python environment and interpreter provided that you activate your virtualenv first (I assume you know how to do this).

Vivl

or run like <path-to-my-env>/bin/python manage.py runserver – Customs

Well spotted! That exactly was the problem! – Cointon

Also, er... remember to activate the virtualenv. D'oh! – Landside

Anyway you could provide an example of the path to your python executable in your virtualenv. For example my path to my virtual env is /Users/Chris/virtualenv/my_first_venv and I made the first line #!/Users/Chris/virtualenv/my_first_venv/, but I still get the same error. I think I may be doing something wrong with the shebang... – Ellis

You might have forgotten to add the python executable at the end of the path : #!/Users/Chris/virtualenv/my_first_venv/bin/python or something along this ? – Vivl

32 down vote If you are in a virtualenv you need to activate it before you can run ./manage.py 'command' source path/to/your/virtualenv/bin/activate if you config workon in .bash_profile or .bashrc use workon yourvirtualenvname please dont edit your manage.py file maybe works by isnt the correct way and could give you future errors – Somite

how do we find the environment? – Victualler

Interesting scenario: only raises ImportError when I run sudo python .... This is because sudo and user use different pythons! Run sudo /path/to/users/python ... instead. – Beige

Answer 3

If you are in a virtualenv you need to activate it before you can run ./manage.py 'command'

source path/to/your/virtualenv/bin/activate

if you config workon in .bash_profile or .bashrc

workon yourvirtualenvname

*please dont edit your manage.py file maybe works by isnt the correct way and could give you future errors

Somite

This did it for me too after burning half of the night struggling to make it work. Thank you a whole lot @elin3t. – Rale

Answer 4

I had the same problem because I was installing Django as a super user, thus not in my virtualenv. You should not do sudo pip install Django

Instead, install it this way:

$ source ./bin/activate
$ pip install Django

Sidelong

But without sudo you get: OSError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/opt/local/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django' – Propraetor

@Sidelong Thank you!!! I was struggling for likt 30 mins trying to figure this out...I'm a Noob to Django, So thank you for this! – Forevermore

Answer 5

Please, reinstall django with pip:

sudo pip install --upgrade django==1.3

(Replace 1.3 to your django version)

Traditionalism

Not recommended. Using sudo to install into the system directories will interfere with native packages and most probably break atleast some parts of your python install. I'd recommend virtualenv. – Brout

Answer 6

Another possible reason for this problem is that your OS runs python3 by default.

Either you have to explicitly do: python2 manage.py

or you need to edit the shebang of manage.py, like so:

#!/usr/bin/env python2

or if you are using python3:

#!/usr/bin/env python3

Clite

for me, I had to do #!/usr/bin/env python2.7 – Nathalie

Answer 7

You are probably using virtualenvwrapper. Don't forget to select your enviroment by running:

$ workon env_name

Hardboiled

Answer 8

I had this error while trying to run an embedded system (using django of course) on a Raspberry Pi 2 (and not a VM)

Running this:

 sudo pip install Django

Made the trick!

• just in case a fellow using Raspbian/Jessie gets this

Claypoole

Answer 9

python3 manage.py runserver

Check version of Python

Tewfik

Answer 10

For me, my server was using Python 2.4. I simply looked up Python 2.7, which was installed on my server, and created an alias.

alias python=python2.7

If you need to know more, I found the solution here

Lanny

Answer 11

I was getting the same problem while I trying to create a new app. If you write python manage.py startapp myapp, then it looks for usr/bin/python. But you need this "python" which is located in /bin directory of your virtual env path. I solved this by mentioning the virtualenv's python path just like this:

<env path>/bin/python manage.py startapp myapp

Rootlet

Answer 12

Solved it!!!

After searching for ages and trying all these other suggestions which didn't work, I finally found the solution for my setup.

My setup/scenario:

• Windows, Python27
• My django project is checked out via svn
• when running python manage.py runserver in the new folder, I got the import error
• python manage.py runserver used to work in the original folder (which I would commit changes from) until I deleted it

Solution

Remove any the folder named django in the same directory of manage.py

Thats right...as soon as I removed the folder "django" which only contained a __init__.py file...I could run the server again!

Have no idea why though

Choice

Because a folder with a __init__.py file is treated as a python module. So you should not name the implied module directory django – Bandur

Answer 13

Try change your first line of manage.py.

Change

#!/usr/bin/python

by

#!/usr/bin/env python

Grew

The reverse helped me. Replaced #!/usr/bin/env python by #!/usr/bin/python – Brande

env is a common unix bin to get os environment bin links, depending on OS configuration or python installation the bin may reside in a different path than /usr/bin/ and your solution will not work, also will not work if 'env' bin is installed in a different location. – Grew

Answer 14

==================================SOLUTION=========================================

First goto: virtualenv

by running the command: source bin/activate

and install django because you are getting the error related to 'import django':

pip install django

Then run:

python manage.py runserver

(Note: please change 'runserver' to the program name you want to run)

For the same issue, it worked in my case. ==================================Synopsis=========================================

ERROR:
(Development) Rakeshs-MacBook-Pro:src rakesh$ python manage.py runserver
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "manage.py", line 8, in <module>
    from django.core.management import execute_from_command_line
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'django'

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "manage.py", line 14, in <module>
    import django
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'django'

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "manage.py", line 17, in <module>
    "Couldn't import Django. Are you sure it's installed and "
ImportError: Couldn't import Django. Are you sure it's installed and available on your PYTHONPATH environment variable? Did you forget to activate a virtual environment?
(Development) Rakeshs-MacBook-Pro:src rakesh$ 
(Development) Rakeshs-MacBook-Pro:src rakesh$ 
(Development) Rakeshs-MacBook-Pro:src rakesh$ python -Wall manage.py test
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "manage.py", line 8, in <module>
    from django.core.management import execute_from_command_line
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'django'

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "manage.py", line 14, in <module>
    import django
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'django'

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "manage.py", line 17, in <module>
    "Couldn't import Django. Are you sure it's installed and "
ImportError: Couldn't import Django. Are you sure it's installed and available on your PYTHONPATH environment variable? Did you forget to activate a virtual environment?

AFTER INSTALLATION of django:

(Development) MacBook-Pro:src rakesh$ pip install django
Collecting django
  Downloading https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/51/1a/e0ac7886c7123a03814178d7517dc822af0fe51a72e1a6bff26153103322/Django-2.1-py3-none-any.whl (7.3MB)
    100% |████████████████████████████████| 7.3MB 1.1MB/s 
Collecting pytz (from django)
  Downloading https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/30/4e/27c34b62430286c6d59177a0842ed90dc789ce5d1ed740887653b898779a/pytz-2018.5-py2.py3-none-any.whl (510kB)
    100% |████████████████████████████████| 512kB 4.7MB/s 
Installing collected packages: pytz, django

AFTER RESOLVING:

(Development) MacBook-Pro:src rakesh$ python manage.py runserver
Performing system checks...

System check identified no issues (0 silenced).

You have 15 unapplied migration(s). Your project may not work properly until you apply the migrations for app(s): admin, auth, contenttypes, sessions.
Run 'python manage.py migrate' to apply them.

August 05, 2018 - 04:39:02
Django version 2.1, using settings 'trydjango.settings'
Starting development server at http://127.0.0.1:8000/
Quit the server with CONTROL-C.
[05/Aug/2018 04:39:15] "GET / HTTP/1.1" 200 16348
[05/Aug/2018 04:39:15] "GET /static/admin/css/fonts.css HTTP/1.1" 200 423
[05/Aug/2018 04:39:15] "GET /static/admin/fonts/Roboto-Bold-webfont.woff HTTP/1.1" 200 82564
[05/Aug/2018 04:39:15] "GET /static/admin/fonts/Roboto-Light-webfont.woff HTTP/1.1" 200 81348
[05/Aug/2018 04:39:15] "GET /static/admin/fonts/Roboto-Regular-webfont.woff HTTP/1.1" 200 80304
Not Found: /favicon.ico
[05/Aug/2018 04:39:16] "GET /favicon.ico HTTP/1.1" 404 1976

Good luck!!

Cralg

Answer 15

For those of you using Django 1.6 or newer, note that execute_manager was removed. There is a solution posted in the second SO answer here.

Rosario

Answer 16

Store the python python path in a variable and execute.This would include the otherwise missing packages.

python_path= `which python` 
$python_path manage.py runserver

Nolly

Answer 17

environment: Python 3.9.6, Django 3.2.6, VS Code

Just disable Pylance extension and reload your VS Code.

Balmy

Answer 18

I had a similar problem. PyCharm couldn't run the server but I could run it from the command line. I tried which python and then made sure that PyCharm was same interpreter and then everything worked OK.

Efrenefron

Answer 19

This error usually occurs when django is not installed. If you have already installed django but still getting the same error, then you must be working in separate virtual environment. You need to install django in your virtual environmnent as well. When you are in shell of virtual machine simply do this:

pip install django

It is because virtual machine has separate file system, it doesn't recognize django even if it is installed on your system.

Paramatta

Answer 20

I fixed this problem by changing #PATH="$VIRTUAL_ENV/bin:$PATH" to PATH="$PATH:$VIRTUAL_ENV/bin" For reasons not obvious to me the python executable in the virtualenv dir does not see django but the normally installed python does.

Blubber

Answer 21

Just a single mistake This happened with me as well. My mistake was that I've created Django project before creating virtual env, later activated the env and was trying to start the server. Just install Django after activating env it will work

Groggy

Answer 22

That's an interpreter error.

If you are using vscode then just follow these steps:

• View
• Command palette
• Search for python
• Select interpreter
• Select windows store and your problem will get solved, after few seconds the errors have gone.

This problem occurs due to path changed.

Strepitous

Answer 23

your project is created using an old version of django-admin.py, older than django1.3

to fix this create another django project and copy its manage.py and paste it in the old one

Purport

@dontario. Not this one, I created this project using my personal computer running 1.3.0 final. There are some imported projects that were created with an older version could that be it? – Dispensable

I tried copying my new mange.py from the new application to the old application that is used as well and still get the same error. – Dispensable

Answer 24

Agreed completely that this is a path issue but fwiw, I had this same error. It was due to the mistake of using a relative path for my Python executable when setting up my virtual environment. I had done this:

virtualenv -p ~/python_runtimes/2.7.3/bin/python venv2.7.3 --distribute

Instead I had to give the full path to the Python executable.

HTH, Harlin

Nath

Answer 25

source ~/blog-venv/bin/activate

pick your virtualenv to replace "blog-venv" here.

Racialism

Thanks, that solved my problem with respect to this: File "manage.py", line 8, in <module> from django.core.management import execute_from_ ImportError: No module named django.core.management – Maund

Answer 26

Be sure you're running the right instance of Python with the right directories on the path. In my case, this error resulted from running the python executable by accident - I had actually installed Django under the python2.7 framework & libraries. The same could happen as a result of virtualenv as well.

Tenet

Answer 27

Okay so it goes like this:

You have created a virtual environment and django module belongs to that environment only.Since virtualenv isolates itself from everything else,hence you are seeing this.

go through this for further assistance:

http://www.swegler.com/becky/blog/2011/08/27/python-django-mysql-on-windows-7-part-i-getting-started/

1.You can switch to the directory where your virtual environment is stored and then run the django module.

2.Alternatively you can install django globally to your python->site-packages by either running pip or easy_install

Command using pip: pip install django

then do this:

import django print (django.get_version()) (depending on which version of python you use.This for python 3+ series)

and then you can run this: python manage.py runserver and check on your web browser by typing :localhost:8000 and you should see django powered page.

Hope this helps.

Lection

Answer 28

I included the name of the new App to the INSTALLED_APPS list in the settings.py "before" I issued the startapp command. Once I removed the list entry, I could create the app.

Micrometeorite

Answer 29

I solved this problem by using 'django-admin' command as following instead:

django-admin startproject _project_name

just remove the ".py" attached to "django-admin"

Seasick

Answer 30

Having an application called site can reproduce this issue either.

Hyperform

Answer 31

I got this due to forgetting that I installed Django using pip -U, so it was only available to the user running my Django app. To run manage.py I had to do

sudo su -s /bin/bash MY_DJANGO_USER
/PATH/TO/MY/APP/manage.py

Vanover

Answer 32

I just changed my interpreter and it solved the problem for me. Changed it to Global one.

Gheber

Your answer could be improved with additional supporting information. Please edit to add further details, such as citations or documentation, so that others can confirm that your answer is correct. You can find more information on how to write good answers in the help center. – Defect

Answer 33

all of you guys didn't mention a case where someone "like me" would install django befor installing virtualenv...so for all the people of my kind ther if you did that...reinstall django after activating the virtualenv..i hope this helps

Ulmaceous

This isn't a solution. It's a comment on another solution by Steve k. – Archduchess

that's what happened to me and that's how i fixed it...it's a mistake any beginner could fall into – Ulmaceous