I think the best way to use django is with virtualenv it’s safe and you can install many apps in virtualenv which does not affect any outer space of the system
vitualenv uses the default version of python which is same as in your system
to install virtualenv

sudo pip install virtualenv

or for python3

sudo pip3 install virtualenv

and then in your dir

mkdir ~/newproject

cd ~/newproject

Now, create a virtual environment within the project directory by typing

virtualenv newenv

To install packages into the isolated environment, you must activate it by typing:

source newenv/bin/activate

now install here with

pip install django

You can verify the installation by typing:

django-admin --version

To leave your virtual environment, you need to issue the deactivate command from anywhere on the system:

deactivate

When you install Django on your computer, everything works fine but when you install a Virtual environment it gets separated from all things. You will know it’s importance when you will make a final project and deploy it to any cloud or hosting.

Just re-install Django in the virtual environment and baam:

pip install Django

and then just run the command for testing:

python manage.py runserver

and you are all done.

You need to install Django, this error is giving because django is not installed.

pip install django

You need to use both commands:
pip install django and pip3 install django
that worked for me

find your django parent dir path and add it to PYTHONPATH

In my case, my django parent dir path is /Library/Python/3.7/site-packages,add this line into ~/.bash_profile

export PYTHONPATH=/Library/Python/3.7/site-packages

else if you have PYTHONPATH already, just append it like this

export PYTHONPATH=${PYTHONPATH}:/Library/Python/3.7/site-packages

then

source ~/.bash_profile

1. Check that you have installed Django; by executing import django in python.
   you mustn’t see ModuleNotFoundError if everything’s ok.

   or you can run django-admin --version and check if you see the version number.

2. Check that you have installed virtualenv; by executing virtualenv --version.
   you must see the version number if everything’s ok.

3. Check that you have enabled virtualenv; there’s got to be the name of your virtualenv in your command prompt starting line. enable it by
   source bin/activate. also, remember to deactivate it every time your job is
   finished with the virtualenv.

   

4. Check that your virtualenv includes django. a virtualenv by default
   has no modules installed. you either have to install django in your
   virtualenv (even if you have it in your machine already) or use
   virtualenv --system-site-packages when creating a virtualenv to
   include system site packages in the virtualenv.

5. Add django to your path. open python, import django, then run
   django to see django’s path. then add it to your ~/.bashrc (or
   ~/.zshrc if you’re using zsh). more info in here

6. Install django-admin by running pip install django-admin

I faced the same issue, and in my case it was because I had multiple python versions on my machine, in addition to the Anaconda ones.
In my case django didn’t worked well with my anaconda python.
I knew that when I run import django on each python terminal for all versions I have.

As a summary here are the steps I made to get this solved:

1. Run the CMD as Admin

2. Create a project folder.

3. Create a new ENV for this new project INSIDE THE PROJECT Folder…

   pip install virtualenv >> virtualenv new_env`
   

4. Activate it:

   .\new_env\Scripts\activate`
   

5. After the env activation ⇒ Install Django:

   python -m pip install Django
   

The python version you used here in step 5 will determine which python will to work with this installed Django.

Make sure you have Django installed by writing this command :

python -m django --version

if it’s not installed you can install it by writing this command :

pip install django      

I was having great difficulties with this but I have solved my issue. I am on Windows 10 using Vagrant ssh in my virtualenv environment, the box I have installed is ubuntu/xenial64, Django version 2.1, python==3.6.

When I was installing packages I was using pip3 but most importantly I was using sudo and the -H flag to install these packages. When I ran sudo pip3 freeze my packages would come up, but when I ran a plain pip3 freeze there would be no packages.

Then I tried the python3 manage.py startapp <YOUR APP NAME> and it did not work same error as you.

I finally thought to try sudo python3 manage.py startapp <YOUR APP NAME> it finally worked!

Hope this was help 🙂

You can use python3 to run file, if you don’t want to use virtualenv.python3 manage.py runserver

To install python3 look at this page

If you are working on a machine where it doesn’t have permissions to all the files and moreover you have two versions such as default 2.7 & latest 3.6 then while running the command use the python version with the command. If the latest python is installed with sudo then run the command with sudo.

exp:

sudo python3.6 manage.py runserver

after activating virtual env that error raises up on ubuntu.
and I solve this issue just by typing again :

pip3 install Django

inside the directory which is I want to create a new app.

I solved this problem in a completely different way.

Package installer = Conda (Miniconda)
List of available envs = base, djenv(Django environment created for keeping project related modules).

When I was using the command line to activate the djenv using conda activate djenv, the base environment was already activated. I did not notice that and when djenv was activated, (djenv) was being displayed at the beginning of the prompt on the command line. When i tired executing , python manage.py migrate, this happened.
ImportError: Couldn't import Django. Are you sure it's installed and available on your PYTHONPATH environment variable? Did you forget to activate a virtual environment?

I deactivated the current environment, i.e conda deactivate. This deactivated djenv. Then, i deactivated the base environment.
After that, I again activated djenv. And the command worked like a charm!!

If someone is facing a similar issue, I hope you should consider trying this as well. Maybe it helps.

Instead of creating a new virtual environment, you just have to access to your initially created virtual environment when you started the project.

You just have to do the following in your command line:

1)pipenv shell to access the backend virtual environment that you have initially created.

2) Then, python manage.py runserver

Let me know if it works for you or not.

To create a virtual environment for your project, open a new command prompt, navigate to the folder where you want to create your project and then enter the following:

py -m venv project-name
This will create a folder called ‘project-name’ if it does not already exist and setup the virtual environment. To activate the environment, run:
project-name\Scripts\activate.bat**

The virtual environment will be activated and you’ll see “(project-name)” next to the command prompt to designate that. Each time you start a new command prompt, you’ll need to activate the environment again.

Install Django

Django can be installed easily using pip within your virtual environment.

In the command prompt, ensure your virtual environment is active, and execute the following command:

py -m pip install Django

You probably upgrated Python before running into this problem. When you upgrade Python, the Virtual Environment usually breaks. Generally people suggests to recreate the virtual environment and re-install all the dependencies with pips, but this is not always desirable and it is very annoying that it heppens each time Python gets upgrated. Some other people suggest using Docker, and it would work if you are a Docker user. But I have found a solution that allows you to continue to use the same virtual environment, even if the Python version has changed. I have only tested it with venv under Linux. But it should work with others virtual environments and even under Windows with minor adjustements. Here is a simple, step-by-step solution:

Step 1: Navigate into your virtual environment folder and locate the file pyvenv.cfg. Open it for editing.

Step 2: Update the version line with your current Python version. For example if your previous version was 3.11.3 and your new version is 3.11.5 edit the line like that

version = 3.11.5

Save and close the file. But you did not finish yet.

Step 3: Navigate through the bin directory of your virtual environment (in Windows it is the scripts directory) and open a console inside it (in my system I do it with shift+f4).

Step 4: In this directory there is a symbolic link named "python" wich points to /usr/bin/python3.x (where x is the version number). Delete it.

Step 5: Recreate the symbolic link. It should point to your python executable in /usr/bin. For example if your new python version here /usr/bin/3.11 then the symbolic link should be

ln -s /usr/bin/python3.11 python

Step 6: Activate your virtual environment again if you did not it already and now,

python manage.py

runserver and all other related commands should work like a charm.

In case you have virtual env activated, django installed, django-admin –version prints the valid version – check if there is no circular import in the file you are executing.

I faced the same problem when I was doing it on windows 10. The problem could be that the path is not defined for manage.py in the environment variables. I did the following steps and it worked out for me!

1. Go to Start menu and search for manage.py.
2. Right click on it and select “copy full path”.
3. Go to your “My Computer” or “This PC”.
4. Right click and select “Properties”.
5. Select Advanced settings.
6. Select “Environment Variables.”
7. In the lower window, find “Path”, click on it and click edit.
8. Finally, click on “Add New”.
9. Paste the copied path with CTRL-V.
10. Click OK and then restart you CMD with Administrator privileges.

I really hope it works!

Looks like you have not activated your virtualenv when using the runserver command.

Windows: <virtualenv dir>\Scripts\activate.bat

Linux: source <virtualenv dir>\bin\activate

You should see (name of virtualenv) as a prefix to your current directory:

(virtualenv) E:\video course\Python\code\web_worker\MxOnline>python manage.py runserver

windows :

1. (virtualenv dir)\Scripts\activate # this step to activate virtualenv

2. you should be in the dir of (project name)

3. python manage.py runserver

you need to go to the root directory
and run the below command

source bin/activate

Once the above command is executed, you will be able to create custom apps

I also face the same problem in windows 10 with anaconda
For me anaconda3\Scripts>activate

it’s working good. What you have to do you just need to go to anaconda home

AppData\Local\Continuum\anaconda3\Scripts

and you need to open a cmd prompt and type activate.

It will activate the venv for you.

if you don’t want to deactivate or activate the already installed venv just ensure you have set the pythonpath set

set pythonpath=C:\software\venv\include;C:\software\venv\lib;C:\software\venv\scripts;C:\software\venv\tcl;C:\software\venv\Lib\site-packages;

and then execute

“%pythonpath%” %venvpath%Scripts\mytestsite\manage.py runserver “%ipaddress%”:8000

The problem is related to this error: Execution Policy Change

Start virtualenv by running the following command:

Command Line
C: \ Users \ Name \ yourdjangofilesname > myvenv \ Scripts \ activate

NOTE: On Windows 10, you may receive an error by Windows PowerShell that the implementation of these scenarios is disabled on this system. In this case, open another Windows PowerShell with the "Run as Administrator" option. After that, try typing the following commands before starting your virtual environment:

C:\WINDOWS\system32> set-executionpolicy remotesigned

Execution Policy Change:
The execution policy helps protect you from scripts that you do not trust. Changing the execution policy might expose you to the security risks described in the about_Execution_Policies help topic at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=135170.

Do you want to change the execution policy? [Y] Yes [A] Yes to All [N] No [L] No to All [S] Suspend [?] Help (default is "N"): A

After selection Y(es), close the Powershell admin window, and then go back to the Powershell Window(where you got the error) and run the command again.

> myenv\Scripts\activate and then python manage.py runserver 8085 ,

(8085 or any number if you want to change its default port to work on otherwise you dont need to point out anything. )

I had same problem, I installed all dependencies with root access :

In your case:

sudo pip install django

In my case, I had all dependencies in requirements.txt, So:

sudo pip3 install -r requirements.txt

Just sync your pipenv environment with:

pipenv sync

I had this problem with Django 3.

On manage.py detail the execute_from_command_line import.

You should have:

from django.core.management import execute_from_command_line

Instead of

from django import execute_from_command_line
 

I had the same problem and my solution was not posted here:

How I got the error

My error came whenever I was installation the requirements.txt file with pip (let’s say from cloning a git repository).

Solution

I manually installed each of the modules in the requirements.txt + any other module needed for the installation of those modules (e.g: I got errors and some modules where missing to install other modules so I had to add them too).

If there is anyone who faced with the same problem when using virtual environment and running on MacOS, just try

sudo python manage.py startapp <project_name>

instead of

python manage.py startapp <project_name>

It will solve the problem suprisingly!

I had to install django using the virtual environment pip3 executable directly:

cd [virtual environment folder]/bin
sudo ./pip3 install django

If you already installed Django / configured virtualenv and you still having the error:

ImportError: Couldn’t import Django. Are you sure it’s installed and
available on your PYTHONPATH environment variable?

Try to run the command pipenv shell before start the server with py manage.py runserver

Just had this issue in VScode. I had a virtual environment set up and Django was installed. My server ran fine but whenever I tried running the debugger, VScode would throw the ImportError and deactivate my virtual environment.

Fixed it by restarting VScode.

Try the other answers first, make sure your virtual environment is set up and you can run your server. Then if it still doesn’t work, restart your IDE.

I had the same error, might have been for different reasons but just in case others find their way to this page who had my problem, this page solved it.
https://iancarpenter.dev/2021/08/19/exception-has-occurred-importerror-couldnt-import-django-when-debugging-django-with-vs-code/#resolution

If you have many python version installed for example python 3.6 & python 3.7 Interpreters .
Django may be installed on python 3.7 version not in 3.6 and you choose the Interpreter with 3.6 the problem arise, you need to change your interpreter to solve that .

first check django version

django-admin –version

next

pip install django

If you are using python 3 use py in front of cmd code, like this

py manage.py runserver