No module named when using PyInstaller

Question

I try to compile a Python project under Windows 7 using PyInstaller. The project works fine, there are no issues, however when I try to compile it the result doesn't work. Though I get no warnings during compilation there are many in the warnmain.txt file in the build directory: warnmain.txt

I don't really understand those warnings, for example "no module named numpy.pi" since numpy.pi is no module but a number. I never tried to import numpy.pi. I did import numpy and matplotlib explicitly. In addition I'm using PyQt4. I thought the error might be related to those libraries.

However I was able to compile a simple script which uses numpy succesfully:

import sys
from PyQt4 import QtGui, QtCore
import numpy as np

class MainWindow(QtGui.QMainWindow):
    def __init__(self):
        QtGui.QMainWindow.__init__(self)

        self.pb = QtGui.QPushButton(str(np.pi), self)

app = QtGui.QApplication(sys.argv)
main = MainWindow()
main.show()
sys.exit(app.exec_())

Successfully here means that the created executable file actually showed the desired output. However there is also a warnmain.txt file created which contains exactly the same 'warnings' as the one before. So I guess the fact that compiling my actual project does not give any success is not (or at least not only) related to those warnings. But what else could be the error then? The only output during compilation are 'INFO's and none of the is a negative statement.

I did not specify an additional hook directory but the hooks where down using the default directory as far as I could read from the compile output, e.g. hook-matplotlib was executed. I could not see any hook for numpy neither could I for my small example script but this one worked. I used the following imports in my files (not all in the same but in different ones):

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as ppl
from matplotlib.backends.backend_qt4agg import FigureCanvasQTAgg as FigureCanvas
from matplotlib.backends.backend_qt4agg import NavigationToolbar2QTAgg as NavigationToolbar
from PyQt4 import QtGui, QtCore
import json
import sys
import numpy # added this one later
import matplotlib # added this one later

Since PyInstaller does not give any errors/warnings I could not figure out if the problem is related to the libraries or if there is something else to be considered.

Answer 1

Had a similar problem with no module named FileDialog. Discovered that with version 3.2, I could use

pyinstaller --hidden-import FileDialog ...

instead of modifying my main script.

See Listing Hidden Imports documentation

Answer 2

Pyinstaller won't see second level imports. So if you import module A, pyinstaller sees this. But any additional module that is imported in A will not be seen.

There is no need to change anything in your python scripts. You can directly add the missing imports to the spec file. Just change the following line:

hiddenimports=[],

to

hiddenimports=["Tkinter", "FileDialog"],

Answer 3

If you are getting ModuleNotFoundError: No module named ... errors and you:

• call PyInstaller from a directory other than your main script's directory
• use relative imports in your script

then your executable can have trouble finding the relative imports.

This can be fixed by:

• calling PyInstaller from the same directory as your main script

• OR removing any __init__.py files (empty __init__.py files are not required in Python 3.3+)

• OR using PyInstaller's paths flag to specify a path to search for imports. E.g. if you are calling PyInstaller from a parent folder to your main script, and your script lives in subfolder, then call PyInstaller as such:

  pyinstaller --paths=subfolder subfolder/script.py.

Answer 4

The problem were some runtime dependencies of matplotlib. So the compiling was fine while running the program threw some errors. Because the terminal closed itself immediately I didn't realize that. After redirecting stdout and stderr to a file I could see that I missed the libraries Tkinter and FileDialog. Adding two imports at the top of the main solved this problem.

Answer 5

I was facing the same problem and the following solution worked for me:

1. I first removed the virtual environment in which I was working.
2. Reinstalled all the modules using pip (note: this time I did not create any virtual environment).
3. Then I called the pyinstaller.
4. The .exe file created thereafter executed smoothly, without any module import error.

Answer 6

If the matter is that you don't need Tkinter and friends because you are using PyQt4, then it might be best to avoid loading Tkinter etc altogether. Look into /etc/matplotlibrc and change the defaults to PyQt4, see the 'modified' lines below:

#### CONFIGURATION BEGINS HERE

# The default backend; one of GTK GTKAgg GTKCairo GTK3Agg GTK3Cairo
# CocoaAgg MacOSX Qt4Agg Qt5Agg TkAgg WX WXAgg Agg Cairo GDK PS PDF SVG
# Template.
# You can also deploy your own backend outside of matplotlib by
# referring to the module name (which must be in the PYTHONPATH) as
# 'module://my_backend'.

#modified 
#backend      : TkAgg
backend      : Qt4Agg


# If you are using the Qt4Agg backend, you can choose here
# to use the PyQt4 bindings or the newer PySide bindings to
# the underlying Qt4 toolkit.

#modified 
#backend.qt4 : PyQt4        # PyQt4 | PySide
backend.qt4 : PyQt4        # PyQt4 | PySide

Answer 7

I had the same problem with pyinstaller 3.0 and weblib. Importing it in the main didn't help.

Upgrading to 3.1 and deleting all build files helped.

pip install --upgrade pyinstaller

Answer 8

May not be a good practice but installing pyinstaller in the original environment used in my project (instead of a separate venv) helped resolve ModuleNotFoundError

Answer 9

I had similar problem with PySimpleGUI. The problem was, pyinstaller was installed in different directory. SOLUTION (solved for me) : just install pyinstaller in the same directory in which the file is present (that to be converted to exe)

Answer 10

If these solutions don't work, simply deleting and reinstalling pyinstaller can fix this for you (as it did for me just now).

Putting this here for anyone else who might come across this post.

Answer 11

I had the same error. Mine said "ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'numpy'". I fixed it by typing the following in the cmd:

pip install pyinstaller numpy

Answer 12

I had this problem because my binary was in a subfolder and I was using the top-level directory as my module root. That is, I had the following directory structure:

my-project/
└── a
    ├── b
    |   └── some_library.py
    └── c
        └── my_binary.py

I was always calling my_binary.py from the my-project directory as python -m a.c.my_binary and it imported some_library as from a.b import some_library. When I ran pyinstaller a/c/my_binary.py and then tried running my_binary, I got ModuleNotFound for some_library.

I had to run pyinstaller with the -paths flag, pointing it at the project root:

$ pyinstaller -paths=. a/c/my_binary.py
...
119 INFO: Extending PYTHONPATH with paths
['/home/me/gitroot/my-project/a/c', '/home/me/gitroot/my-project']
...

With the PYTHONPATH pointing at the project root, the module was included/resolved.

Answer 13

My specific issue was that my Python installation was fragmented into a local directory (%APPDATA%/python) and the all-users' directory (C:/program files/python). I just deleted the local folder, reinstalled python + pyinstaller making sure they are in the all-users' directory, and it worked.