ImportError: cannot import name 'PILLOW_VERSION' from 'PIL' (unknown location)

[poormag]

I got this error while importing Image

from PIL import Image
Traceback (most recent call last):

  File "<ipython-input-13-b7f01c2f8cfe>", line 1, in <module>
    from PIL import Image

  File "/lib/python3.7/site-packages/PIL/Image.py", line 40, in <module>
    from . import PILLOW_VERSION, ImageMode, TiffTags, __version__, _plugins

**ImportError:** cannot import name 'PILLOW_VERSION' from 'PIL' (unknown location)

I tried to remove it by myself but then got the same problem with __version__, then _plugins

Updating doesn't work for me. Can you help please?

[radarhere]

How did you install Pillow?

Googling, I would conclude that there is something strange about your installation, rather than anything specific to Pillow. I would be curious about what is printed by this code, and whether it makes a difference -

import sys
print(sys.path)
sys.path.append('/lib/python3.7/site-packages')
from PIL import Image

[poormag]

@radarhere i did it by usual way pip3 install Pillow.

After this:

import sys
print(sys.path)
sys.path.append('/lib/python3.7/site-packages')
from PIL import Image

I got another an import error but different:
ImportError: cannot import name '_imaging' from 'PIL' (/lib/python3.7/site-packages/PIL/__init__.py).

Should I reinstall it by some specific way?

[radarhere]

Installing it through pip should be fine. What operating system are you using?

Have you tried uninstalling it and re-installing it to see if that fixes anything?

[poormag]

@radarhere , yeah, of course I did...
Ubuntu 18.0

Thanx for you help, now I see it's maybe some environment problem.

[radarhere]

Another thought - considering that the first problem means that Python wasn't able to import the package correctly in some way, you might try python -m pip install Pillow instead of just pip install Pillow, as that will ensure that the same Python is being used for pip as for the running of your script.

[radarhere]

@poormag if you resolve this, be sure to let us know, so we can close the issue, and maybe leave a note of the solution for the sake of anyone arriving here in the future.

Thanks for using Pillow. Unfortunately it is harder to remotely debug install problems.

[radarhere]

For _imaging, I would check in the installed PIL directory to see if there is an _imaging*.so file.

For another idea, import PIL.Image as Image might conceivably produce a different result.

Python 3.8 has also been released. While not a solution to your problem, you may be interested in upgrading, and that new environment may work for you.

[stmax82]

I'm getting the same error right now after conda install pillow on Win 10.
It installed pillow 6.2.1, python is 3.6.9.

Looks like downgrading to pillow 6.1 helps.. after conda install pillow=6.1 the error is gone.

[hugovk]

@stmax82 Please report Conda issues to https://github.com/conda-forge/pillow-feedstock.

It sounds a bit like conda-forge/pillow-feedstock#66 ("DLL import fails in fresh conda install"), fixed yesterday.

---

I'll close this issue, @poormag let us know if this is still a problem with pip and we can re-open.

[WeiQijie]

I met the same problem. I am using python3.7.5 on macos. When using pip install Pillow, pillow 7.0.0 was installed. I received ImportError: cannot import name 'PILLOW_VERSION' from 'PIL'. When I specify the version pip install Pillow==6.1, the problem is gone.

[hugovk]

@WeiQijie In 7.0.0:

PILLOW_VERSION has been removed. Use __version__ instead.

https://pillow.readthedocs.io/en/stable/releasenotes/7.0.0.html#pillow-version-constant

[Gauraviiitian]

I met the same problem. I am using python3.7.5 on macos. When using pip install Pillow, pillow 7.0.0 was installed. I received ImportError: cannot import name 'PILLOW_VERSION' from 'PIL'. When I specify the version pip install Pillow==6.1, the problem is gone.

This one worked for me, thanks for sharing, I really struggled with this the whole Day. Thanks again!