Django - cannot import name 'config' from 'decouple'

Question

I'm trying to run this project locally but when i try manage.py makemigrations i keep getting the following error:

ImportError: cannot import name 'config' from 'decouple'

Here are my steps:

Clone the repository from github
Create a virtual environment
Install the dependencies

I made some research but i found nothing about what could be generating that error. Can anyone help me out on this? Thanks in advance!I'm running Django 3.

I'm having this problem too, but I think the solution with the two Decouple modules could be legit. Otherwise, I would say try using something else. Currently I use Decouple for the .env environment variables in Django and so I hope it works, I've tried other situations like the environ module (which doesn't work). Remember to put .env in your .gitignore though, otherwise you could expose your secret key. If a better answer/solution pops up I'd love to find it. EDIT: Yes, this does work on Windows at least (with Django 3.3) and so thank you Stack Overflow — Peter Nielsen, Dec 01 '20 at 00:57

David · Accepted Answer · 2020-07-30T18:34:51.707

153

You might have decouple installed in additional to python-decouple (two different packages).

If that is the case simply uninstall decouple

pip uninstall decouple

And ensure you have python-decouple installed

pip install python-decouple

edited Jul 30 '20 at 18:34

answered Jul 21 '20 at 01:31

David

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Thank you! Packages developers should **seriously** solve this – Rami Alloush Mar 05 '21 at 21:09
This is why you should always install dependencies from requirements.txt @RamiAlloush – Manuel Fedele Mar 28 '21 at 20:05
might also want to try with `pip3 install python-decouple` – Laenka-Oss Jul 02 '22 at 21:09
`conda install -c conda-forge python-decouple` works too :) – DanielBell99 Apr 12 '23 at 13:41

score 6 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 15 '22 at 12:38

6

The error happens because your python interpreter is looking for python-decouple package instead of decouple

Uninstall the existing package using this command pip uninstall decouple

And then install
pip install python-decouple

answered Mar 15 '22 at 12:38

Shahbaz Zaidi

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score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 25 '20 at 17:01

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It shows the error because you are not installed the module python-decouple Just run pip install -r requirements.txt If it won't work then try it in env

pip install python-decouple

answered Jun 25 '20 at 17:01

Pavan kumar

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Weird thing is that i installed Decouple but i still keep getting the error – Jack022 Jun 25 '20 at 17:33

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 29 '20 at 14:23

I was using pipenv to create a virtual environment and run the Django project

pipenv install -r requiremnts.txt
pipenv shell
python manage.py runserver

Interestingly above method kept throwing error that it cannot import config from decouple

then I tried:

python -m venv myEnv
myEnv/Scripts/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt
python manage.py runserver

and this ran the project successfully. I didnt understand why this would happen as I am doing pretty much same just using pip instead of pipenv.

gildniy · Answer 5 · 2021-03-27T13:14:30.977

I encountered the same issue, and in my case, it was caused by a conflict between "decouple" and "python-decouple" packages (I had installed both of them by mistake). As the latter creates a file called "decouple.py" in the installation virtual environment, finding the package of the same name, this will confuse the Django app of which of the 2 decouple reference it will consider. To fix this I had to uninstall the "decouple" package with pipenv uninstall decouple and install the "python-decouple" package with pipenv install python-decouple.

...

class AutoConfig(object):
    """
    Autodetects the config file and type.

    Parameters
    ----------
    search_path : str, optional
        Initial search path. If empty, the default search path is the
        caller's path.

    """
    ...

# A pré-instantiated AutoConfig to improve decouple's usability
# now just import config and start using with no configuration.
config = AutoConfig()

# Helpers
...

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered May 07 '21 at 04:28

0

I struggled with this for a good hour, the fix was to close the current bash/terminal window and opening a new one.

answered May 07 '21 at 04:28

Ali H. Kudeir

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score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Aug 01 '21 at 10:47

After trying almost everything, installing the python-decouple for the whole system, as opposed to in an environment, worked for me. So left the virtual environment, installed python-decouple then activated back my environment again. It works for me.

Let me know if this helps.

score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Jul 26 '23 at 15:18

0

It shows the error because you are not installed the module python-decouple Just run pip uninstall decouple then try

pip install python-decouple it worked for me

answered Jul 26 '23 at 15:18

Migos

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Welcome to Stack Overflow! You should always wrap commands in a code block to make them easier to read. Also, there are other reasons this could be happening, so please take the time to research and suggest other possible solutions as well. – Olney1 Jul 29 '23 at 09:07

Django - cannot import name 'config' from 'decouple'

8 Answers8