Recently, I upgraded the version of Django framework from 2.0.6 to 3.0 and suddenly after calling python manage.py shell command, I got this exception:

ImportError: cannot import name 'six' from 'django.utils' (/path-to-project/project/venv/lib/python3.7/site-packages/django/utils/init.py)

Full trace:

Traceback (most recent call last): File "manage.py", line 13, in <module> execute_from_command_line(sys.argv) File "/path-to-project/project/venv/lib/python3.7/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 401, in execute_from_command_line utility.execute() File "/path-to-project/project/venv/lib/python3.7/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 377, in execute django.setup() File "/path-to-project/project/venv/lib/python3.7/site-packages/django/__init__.py", line 24, in setup apps.populate(settings.INSTALLED_APPS) File "/path-to-project/project/venv/lib/python3.7/site-packages/django/apps/registry.py", line 91, in populate app_config = AppConfig.create(entry) File "/path-to-project/project/venv/lib/python3.7/site-packages/django/apps/config.py", line 90, in create module = import_module(entry) File "/usr/lib/python3.7/importlib/__init__.py", line 127, in import_module return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level) File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1006, in _gcd_import File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 983, in _find_and_load File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 967, in _find_and_load_unlocked File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 677, in _load_unlocked File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap_external>", line 728, in exec_module File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 219, in _call_with_frames_removed File "/path-to-project/project/venv/lib/python3.7/site-packages/corsheaders/__init__.py", line 1, in <module> from .checks import check_settings # noqa: F401 File "/path-to-project/project/venv/lib/python3.7/site-packages/corsheaders/checks.py", line 7, in <module> from django.utils import six

Similar Questions:

I read this Question and this , release note , but those resources couldn't help me.

6

16 Answers

Why this error/exception?

From release notes,

django.utils.six - Remove usage of this vendored library or switch to six.

means, django.utils.six module was removed from onwards.

My codebase isn't using "django.utils.six" module, then why this error?

This import error could be raised because of two reasons,

  1. Most importantly, any of your installed packages are using the django.utils.six module
  2. or maybe your codebase using the django.utils.six module

NOTE: Most of the time the first reason is the villain 😖😖

How can I identify which package is causing the error/exception?

The easy way is, look into your last few lines of error traceback, and it will tell you which package is causing the exceptions.

Examples

Corsheaders

In this example, corsheaders module caused the the import error

 File "/path-to-project/project/venv/lib/python3.7/site-packages/corsheaders/__init__.py", line 1, in from .checks import check_settings # noqa: F401 File "/path-to-project/project/venv/lib/python3.7/site-packages/corsheaders/checks.py", line 7, in from django.utils import six

Example-2

In this example, jsonfield module caused the the import error

 File "d:\production\myproject\venv\lib\site-packages\jsonfield\fields.py", line 21, in from .encoder import JSONEncoder File "d:\production\myproject\venv\lib\site-packages\jsonfield\encoder.py", line 2, in from django.utils import six, timezone ImportError: cannot import name 'six' from 'django.utils' (d:\production\myproject\venv\lib\site-packages\django\utils\__init__.py)

Example-3

In this example parler module caused the import error

... File "/path/to/project/venv/lib/python3.8/site-packages/parler/utils/conf.py", line 10, in from django.utils import six ImportError: cannot import name 'six' from 'django.utils' (/path/to/project/venv/lib/python3.8/site-packages/django/utils/__init__.py)

Example-4

In this example django_mysql module caused the import error

 File "/home/jerin/.virtualenvs/webscraperio/lib/python3.6/site-packages/django_mysql/checks.py", line 9, in from django_mysql.utils import collapse_spaces File "/home/jerin/.virtualenvs/webscraperio/lib/python3.6/site-packages/django_mysql/utils.py", line 17, in from django.utils import six ImportError: cannot import name 'six'

What is the solution?

If the error raised because of some third-party packages like django-cors-headers,django-jsonfield, etc upgrade the corresponding package versions to latest versions. If you are already using the latest version, report an issue with the developer.

If the error raised because from your codebase, use six package instead of django.utils.six module

0

The Django 3.0.0 release notes specify that certain private Python 2 compatibility APIs were removed. Among those was django.utils.six.

For this error specifically, @WillemVanOnsem noted that the module corsheaders was referencing this module.

For others encountering this same thing, looking at the file path on the last line of the stack trace can help with identifying the problematic module. Another example of this I've seen is:

... File "/path/to/project/venv/lib/python3.8/site-packages/parler/utils/conf.py", line 10, in <module> from django.utils import six ImportError: cannot import name 'six' from 'django.utils' (/path/to/project/venv/lib/python3.8/site-packages/django/utils/__init__.py)

The module causing the issue, in this case, was parler. I hope this helps any others who encounter this issue.

6

Install this library: django-utils-six 2.0 for Django >= 3.

pip install django-utils-six

First, install six from pip

pip install six

Second, call six

from six import text_type

For me works, I have Django 3.0.4

1

As mentioned by Mohammad Masoumi, upgrading the packages will resolve the issue because corsheaders is supporting Django 3.0 now. 

pip install --upgrade django-cors-headers

I also upgraded djangorestframework and drf_yasg to avoid this ImportError.

0

You need to update the cors headers package:

pip3 install six pip3 install --upgrade django-cors-headers
2

Exception:

 File "/usr/local/lib/python3.8/dist-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 377, in execute django.setup() File "/usr/local/lib/python3.8/dist-packages/django/__init__.py", line 24, in setup apps.populate(settings.INSTALLED_APPS) File "/usr/local/lib/python3.8/dist-packages/django/apps/registry.py", line 114, in populate app_config.import_models() File "/usr/local/lib/python3.8/dist-packages/django/apps/config.py", line 211, in import_models self.models_module = import_module(models_module_name) File "/usr/lib/python3.8/importlib/__init__.py", line 127, in import_module return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level) File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1014, in _gcd_import File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 991, in _find_and_load File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 975, in _find_and_load_unlocked File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 671, in _load_unlocked File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap_external>", line 783, in exec_module File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 219, in _call_with_frames_removed File "/usr/local/lib/python3.8/dist-packages/django_celery_beat/models.py", line 6, in <module> import timezone_field File "/usr/local/lib/python3.8/dist-packages/timezone_field/__init__.py", line 1, in <module> from timezone_field.fields import TimeZoneField File "/usr/local/lib/python3.8/dist-packages/timezone_field/fields.py", line 5, in <module> from django.utils import six ImportError: cannot import name 'six' from 'django.utils' (/usr/local/lib/python3.8/dist-packages/django/utils/__init__.py)

Solution:

 vi /usr/local/lib/python3.8/dist-packages/timezone_field/fields.py

Change: 

from django.utils import six

To: 

import six
1

I had the same problem.

My issue was using:

pip install django_taggit==0.22.2

I resolved this when I did: 

pip install django_taggit==1.2.0

because that is the latest version.

1

There are a number of libraries and add-ons to Django that use django.utils.six, which of course are now broken. The main one of concern is mysql-connector-python (8.0.18). The simple solution is to use the library external to Django, but the authors of these libraries will need to make their changes (or you could temporarily make the changes yourself....replace django.utils.six with six).

Folks' ideal solution is an upgrade and clean usage, but a workaround for folks in dire straits is simple enough.

In Django utils create a new file six.py and inside the file put:

import six

NOTE: Not a solution but a workaround for immediate patching

I resolved this issue by installing a higher version of corsheader package.

corsheader v3.3.0 supports Django 3.0.x

django-cors-headers==3.3.0

JSONField Solution:

I used jsonfield and jsonfiled2 packages. But in both cases, I faced the same error.

My problem solved when I have installed django-jsonfield package and uninstall the rest of the packages (related to jsonfield).

# In case you have installed the following packages, otherwise ignore them. pip uninstall jsonfield pip uninstall jsonfield2 pip install django-jsonfield

Usage:

from django.db import models from jsonfield import JSONField class ModelName(models.Model): json_field = JSONField()

I had the exact same problem. Let me tell you how I solved it (fortunately it was simple to do).

So, what's going on?

You have to pay attention to the traceback Django is telling you (pro tip: start from the bottom):

 File "/path-to-project/project/venv/lib/python3.7/site-packages/corsheaders/checks.py", line 7, in <module> from django.utils import six ImportError: cannot import name 'six' from 'django.utils' (/path-to-project/project/venv/lib/python3.7/site-packages/django/utils/init.py)

It tells you two important things:

  1. What's going on: ImportError: cannot import name 'six' from 'django.utils'
  2. Where it's happening: /lib/python3.7/site-packages/corsheaders/checks.py", line 7, in <module>

It is first telling you it cannot import the six module from django.utils, which is quite logical since Django has deprecated the module in Django 3.0.

Now you may ask:

  • but hey, I wasn't using that module!!
  • You're right, but a dependency was :)
  • Which dependency?
  • I'm glad you asked...

This one ==> /lib/python3.7/site-packages/corsheaders/checks.py, corsheaders was importing the module here: from django.utils import six in checks.py (in line 7).

What's the solution?

This issue is generally solved by updating the package that created the problem in the first place. They probably removed that import and replaced it with something else, if necessary. Go to the command line and type:

pip install corsheaders -U

What generated the problem?

Django stopped supporting Python 2. Since django.utils.six provided "Utilities for writing code that runs on Python 2 and 3", it was not longer necessary to support this module, so it was deprecated in Django 3.

Django six is not available for Django versions higher than django2, so a quick fix is to install it via pip:

pip install django-utils-six

Then you should be good to go

As I understand, You just need to delete tokens.py file at all if You have a greater version of Django. And remove all imports from .tokens in other files such as views.py as well.

If the error raised because of some third-party packages and you are already using the latest version, report an issue with the developer. If you did that but you really need a urgent fix, this strategy could make the third party package happy:

 try: # six removed since Django 3.0 from django.utils import six except ImportError: import six import sys sys.modules["django.utils.six"] = six # similarly for any other six sub-module required: sys.modules["django.utils.six.moves"] = six.moves # finally, import the outdated third-party package below: import outdated_library