django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured: Error loading MySQLdb module: No module named MySQLdb

The problem Im facing while trying to connect to database for mysql. I have also given the database settings that i have used.

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "manage.py", line 10, in <module>
execute_from_command_line(sys.argv)
File "/home/ar/Desktop/test/testprac/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 453, in execute_from_command_line
utility.execute()
File "/home/ar/Desktop/test/testprac/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 392, in execute
self.fetch_command(subcommand).run_from_argv(self.argv)
File "/home/ar/Desktop/test/testprac/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 272, in fetch_command
klass = load_command_class(app_name, subcommand)
File "/home/ar/Desktop/test/testprac/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 77, in load_command_class
module = import_module('%s.management.commands.%s' % (app_name, name))
File "/home/arundhati/Desktop/test/testprac/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/utils/importlib.py", line 35, in import_module
__import__(name)
File "/home/ar/Desktop/test/testprac/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/commands/syncdb.py", line 8, in <module>
from django.core.management.sql import custom_sql_for_model, emit_post_sync_signal
File "/home/ar/Desktop/test/testprac/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/sql.py", line 9, in <module>
from django.db import models
File "/home/ar/Desktop/test/testprac/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/__init__.py", line 40, in <module>
backend = load_backend(connection.settings_dict['ENGINE'])
File "/home/ar/Desktop/test/testprac/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/__init__.py", line 34, in __getattr__
return getattr(connections[DEFAULT_DB_ALIAS], item)
File "/home/ar/Desktop/test/testprac/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/utils.py", line 93, in __getitem__
backend = load_backend(db['ENGINE'])
File "/home/ar/Desktop/test/testprac/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/utils.py", line 27, in load_backend
return import_module('.base', backend_name)
File "/home/ar/Desktop/test/testprac/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/utils/importlib.py", line 35, in import_module
__import__(name)
File "/home/ar/Desktop/test/testprac/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/backends/mysql/base.py", line 17, in <module>
raise ImproperlyConfigured("Error loading MySQLdb module: %s" % e)
django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured: Error loading MySQLdb module: No module named MySQLdb


Databse Settings::

DATABASES =
'default':
'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.mysql', # Add 'postgresql_psycopg2', 'mysql', 'sqlite3' or 'oracle'.
'NAME': 'ar_test_db', # Or path to database file if using
# The following settings are not used with sqlite3:
'USER': '',
'PASSWORD': '',
'HOST': '', # Empty for localhost through domain sockets or '127.0.0.1' for localhost through TCP.
'PORT': '', # Set to empty string for default.




Thanks a lot for the help !!

20 Answers
20

It looks like you don't have the python mysql package installed, try:

pip install mysql-python


or if not using a virtual environment (on *nix hosts):

sudo pip install mysql-python


you have to install python-mysqldb - Python interface to MySQL

Try
sudo apt-get install python-mysqldb

sudo apt-get install python-mysqldb

If you get errors trying to install mysqlclient with pip, you may lack the mysql dev library. Install it by running:

apt-get install libmysqlclient-dev


and try again to install mysqlclient:

pip install mysqlclient


pip install mysqlclient

When I set up Django development environment for PyCharm in Mac OS X Mountain Lion with python, mysql, sequel pro application I got error same as owner of this thread.
However, my answer for them who is running python-mysqldb under Mac OS Mountain Lion x86_x64 (MySql and Python also should be same architecture) and already tried everything like pip and etc. In order fix this problem do following steps:

If you get error something like this: "Environment Error: /usr/local/bin/mysql_config not found" then try to add path ass follows: "export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/mysql/bin". But id did not helped to me and I found another solution. In the end of command execution error output which looks like this:

File "/path_to_file/MySQL-python-1.2.4b4/setup_posix.py", line 25, in mysql_config
raise EnvironmentError("%s not found" % (mysql_config.path,))

Open setup_posix.py with vim and go to line 25 (In your case it can be different unless if it is same version).

Line 25 should look like this after your editing unless your mysql have symbolic link like follows '/usr/local/mysql/bin/':

f = popen("%s --%s" % ('/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql_config', what))

f = popen("%s --%s" % ('/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql_config', what))

After this I got another error as following:

django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured: Error loading MySQLdb module: dlopen(/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/MySQL_python-1.2.4b4-py2.7-macosx-10.8-intel.egg/_mysql.so, 2): Library not loaded: libmysqlclient.18.dylib
Referenced from: /Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/MySQL_python-1.2.4b4-py2.7-macosx-10.8-intel.egg/_mysql.so
Reason: image not found

Finally I did following in console:

sudo ln -s /usr/local/mysql/lib/libmysqlclient.18.dylib /usr/lib/libmysqlclient.18.dylib

Currently everything works fine. So I hope it will be helpful for somebody who uses Mac. :)

My answer is similar to @Ron-E, but I got a few more errors/corrections so I'm putting my steps below for Mac OSX on Mavericks and Python 2.7.6.

Install Python mysql package (if you get a success message, then ignore the below steps)

pip install mysql-python


When I did the above, I got the error "EnvironmentError: mysql_config not found"

To fix this, I did the below in terminal:

export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/mysql/bin


When I reran step 1, I get a new error "error: command 'cc' failed with exit status 1"

To fix this, I did the below in terminal:

export CFLAGS=-Qunused-arguments
export CPPFLAGS=-Qunused-arguments


I reran step 1 and got the success message 'Successfully installed mysql-python'!

-bash: export: =-Qunused-arguments': not a valid identifier

You are missing the python mysqldb library. Use this command (for Debian/Ubuntu) to install it:
sudo apt-get install python-mysqldb

mysqldb

sudo apt-get install python-mysqldb

Download and install Mysql-python from here for windows environment. http://www.lfd.uci.edu/~gohlke/pythonlibs/#mysql-python.

On Ubuntu it is advised to use the distributions repository.

sudo apt-get install python-mysqldb


It is because it did not find sql connector. try:

pip install mysqlclient


This happened with me as well and I believe this has become a common error not only for Django developers but also for Flask as well, so the way I solved this issue was using brew.

brew install mysql

sudo pip install mysql-python

This way every single issue was solved and both frameworks work absolutely fine.

P.S.: For those who use macports (such as myself), this can be an issue as brew works in a different level, my advice is to use brew instead of macports

I hope I could be helpful.

For Ubuntu 16.04 and 18.04 or python 3 versions

sudo apt-get install python3-mysqldb


With the same error message as Will, it worked for me to install mysql first as the missing file will be added during the installation.
So after

brew install mysql

pip install mysql-python


ran without errors.

Just to add to other answers, if you're using Django, it is advisable that you install mysql-python BEFORE installing Django.

I wasted a lot of time on this. Turns out that the default database library is not supported for Python 3. You have to use a different one.

if the error looks like this

django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured: Error loading MySQLdb module:
dlopen(/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/_mysql.so, 2): Library not loaded:
/usr/local/opt/mysql/lib/libmysqlclient.20.dylib
Referenced from: /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/_mysql.so


then try :

pip install python-mysqldb


Faced similar issue. I tried installing mysql-python using pip, but it failed due to gcc dependency errors.

mysql-python

The solution that worked for me

conda install mysql-python


Please note that I already had anaconda installed, which didn't had gcc dependency.

I was having the same problem.The following solved my issue

Run pip install pymysql in your shell

Then, edit the init.py file in your project origin directory(the same as settings.py)
and then

add:

import pymysql

pymysql.install_as_MySQLdb()

this should solve the problem.

__init__.py

If you are using pyhton version 3.4 or above. you have to install

sudo apt-get install python3-dev libmysqlclient-dev


in terminal. then install pip install mysqlclient on your virtual env or where you installed pip.

pip install mysqlclient

Maybe you can try the following mode of operation:
sudo python manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:8000

sudo python manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:8000

Seems like you don't have permission to the Python folder. Try sudo chown -R $USER /Library/Python/2.7

sudo chown -R $USER /Library/Python/2.7

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