ImportError: No module named django.core.management when using manage.py

Question

I'm trying to run python manage.py runserver on a Django application I have and I get this error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "manage.py", line 8, in <module>
 from django.core.management import execute_from_command_line
ImportError: No module named django.core.management

Here is the output of pip freeze | grep -i django to show I do in fact have Django installed:

Django==1.6.5
django-cached-authentication-middleware==0.2.0
django-cors-headers==1.1.0
django-htmlmin==0.7.0
django-static-precompiler==0.9
djangorestframework==2.3.14

Also, trying to run /usr/local/bin/python2.7 manage.py runserver yields the same error.

Idellaidelle

did u run the command from where manage.py is at? – Sarcous

And how many versions of pythons are running on ur machine? – Sarcous

are you using a virtual environment for this purpose? can you share the details of your settings file? – Villanueva

Answer 1

To fix my problem I used the following line in my .zprofile:

export PYTHONPATH=/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages

I was trying to import Django and it couldn't be found, and doing the above solved the issue.

Idellaidelle

in case an error is shown that 'export is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file, change EXPORT to SET, i.e., set PYTHONPATH=/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages – Reiko

is there any way to configure the python path permanently? because I have to run the above command every time I open a cmd window – Reiko

This worked perfectly for me. Only solution I've found so far that has worked. – Astern

Did same but still got same error /django_project$ 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' The above exception was the direct cause of the following exception: Traceback (most recent call last): File "manage.py", line 14, in <module> ) from exc – Neela

Answer 2

Possible issues that may cause your problem:

1. PYTHONPATH is not well configured, to configure it you should do:

   export PYTHONPATH=/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages
   

2. You forgot the line #!/usr/bin/env python at the beginning of manage.py

3. If you're working on virtualenv you forgot to activate the virtual env to execute manage.py commands (You may have installed Django on your system but not on your virtualenv)

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

   or

   workon env_name
   

4. You have Python 2.7 and Python 3.4 messing with the package

5. You're using a very old Python 2.4 and you should tell the system to use your Python 2.7 with:

   alias python=python2.7
   

Some times reinstalling/upgrading Django fix some of those issues.

You may want to execute

python -c "import django; print(django.get_version())"

to check if Django is installed on your PC or your virtualenv if you're using one

You can find some other solutions in other similar questions:

• Django import error
• Django uwsgi error
• Django module error

Ureide

Thanks for you answer. I'm not sure about how to set up my PYTHONPATH correctly. Can you give me more insight? Regarding the rest, I do have #2 correct, for #3 I'm not using a virtual environment, so that shouldn't be the problem, for #4 and #5 I have python running a shell with Python 2.7.6 so I think I'm fine there. Also, I've since reinstalled Django but I'm still having the issue. – Idellaidelle

In my case it was number 3: I forgot to activate the virtual environment. A simple: source bin/activate, and solved :) – Slotnick

Answer 3

I solved this same error by running the below command:

python3.4 manage.py runserver

And the above command successfully executed for me. So what you can try is, if you are using python 2.7 then just replace 3.4 with 2.7. Hope this helps.

Plush

this one saved my day... After much struggling, I just changed python2.7 manage.py changepassword instead of python manage.py changepassword and voilá! – Clement

Answer 4

I came across the same issue when I did all the setup and run for django with Python3 but ran the following command:

$ python manage.py migrate

fixed the issue by using a consistent version of Python:

$ python3 manage.py migrate
Operations to perform:
  Apply all migrations: sessions, auth, admin, contenttypes
Running migrations:
  Rendering model states... DONE
  Applying contenttypes.0001_initial... OK
  Applying auth.0001_initial... OK
  Applying admin.0001_initial... OK
  Applying admin.0002_logentry_remove_auto_add... OK
  Applying contenttypes.0002_remove_content_type_name... OK
  Applying auth.0002_alter_permission_name_max_length... OK
  Applying auth.0003_alter_user_email_max_length... OK
  Applying auth.0004_alter_user_username_opts... OK
  Applying auth.0005_alter_user_last_login_null... OK
  Applying auth.0006_require_contenttypes_0002... OK
  Applying auth.0007_alter_validators_add_error_messages... OK
  Applying sessions.0001_initial... OK

Other commands I ran before this were:

python3 -m pip install django
django-admin startproject learning_site
python3 manage.py  runserver 0.0.0.0:8000

Thirlage

Answer 5

If you use virtualenv and run manage.py runserver in windows system, cmd will use system's python, not the python in virtualenv. Because If you install python in system, cmd will automatically use python that installed in system, not the python in virtualenv. So if you use virtualenv in Windows. you need run

>python .\manage.py runserver

Conglomeration

Answer 6

That error is due to the user environment. Indeed i just add the virtuel environment bin path to PATH and the problem has been solved.

PATH=/bin/of_virtualenvironment/:$PATH

Matrass

Answer 7

The direct problem is that django package is missing. For me, as I was running django in virtualenv, this problem occurs after I rename my working directory.

Reinstalling the env worked for me.

Radiation

Answer 8

in where your django file resides, check the first line of django-admin.py:

#!/usr/bin/env python

If you use python 3+, python here may refers python2 here. So check which python you install django with.

ls -l $(which -a python3)

If you do have python3 installed and not linked as python, change the first shebang line into

#!/usr/bin/env python3

Evaevacuant

I think I misunderstand your question since you do use python manage.py to indicate the environment. Just check which python you install django with and use that python. You may have to change the PYTHONPATH or PATH to indicate which python to use. – Evaevacuant

Answer 9

Also, make sure you did not mess up your .bashrc with aliases. You would get this kind of errors if .bashrc contains something like alias python="/usr/bin/python3".

Majuscule

Answer 10

I found that I could import the django module from the python interpreter, but django-admin.py could not import it when run from the command line.

I confirmed that I was using the python interpreter in my virtual environment.

I was using a 64-bit version of python. Uninstalling, and installing the 32-bit version, then re-creating my venv solved this for me.

Acrylic

Answer 11

Fixed the same problem in my project using only;

pip install -r requirements.txt

I didn't have to do anything else. When I ran./manage.py runserver everything worked!

Lipid

Answer 12

Using Pycharm go to Configurations add runserver 8080 to parameters, or I fixed my issue by restarting my computer....strange but worked. I did not have to change pip or install anything else, first try the first method I listed, if you are fine with running manage.py through PyCharm arrow icon, it will work, if you want to go back to the terminal and type python manage.py runserver:port try restarting your machine.

Norvun

Answer 13

Trying the solutions here didn't work for me. Reinstalling Django and upgrading pip removed the error and everything now works as expected when I run python migrate.py runserver

Here are the CLI commands I used:

python -m pip install django

python -m pip install --upgrade pip

Catharinecatharsis

Answer 14

i solved this problem by installing django inside the virtual enviromment that i was working on

Estriol

This is quite vague. Could you explain a little bit what exactly you did and how and why that answers the question? – Imprison