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

You have to install python-mysqldb – Python interface to MySQL.

Try:

sudo apt-get install python-mysqldb

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

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:

1. Download MySql for Python from here
2. Untar downloaded file. In terminal window do following: tar xvfz downloade.tar.
3. cd /to untared directory
4. Run sudo python setup.py install

5. 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,))

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

7. 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))

8. 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

9. 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. 🙂

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

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

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.

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

   pip install mysql-python
   

2. 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
   

3. 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
   

4. I reran step 1 and got the success message ‘Successfully installed mysql-python’!

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.

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

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

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.

1. brew install mysql
2. 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.

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

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

The solution that worked for me

conda install mysql-python

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

For Ubuntu 16.04 and 18.04 or python 3 versions

sudo apt-get install python3-mysqldb

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

pip install mysqlclient

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.

If you are using Python version 3.4 or above, you have to install

sudo apt-get install python3-dev libmysqlclient-dev 

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

I’ve solved this issue in this environment:

$ pyenv --version
pyenv 1.2.9

$ python --version
Python 3.7.2

$ python -m django --version
2.1.7

./settings.py

DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'NAME': 'my_db_name',
        'ENGINE': 'mysql.connector.django',   # 'django.db.backends.mysql'
        'USER': '<user>',
        'PASSWORD': '<pass>',
        'HOST': 'localhost',
        'PORT': 3306,
        'OPTIONS': {
            'autocommit': True,
        },
    }
}

If you use 'ENGINE': 'mysql.connector.django' , install driver executing:

$ pip install mysql-connector-python
Successfully installed mysql-connector-python-8.0.15 protobuf-3.7.0 six-1.12.0

Note that $ pip install mysql-pythondidn’t work for me.

Note that if you use 'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.mysql' , you should install driver executing:
$ pip install mysqlclient

Finally execute:
$ python manage.py migrate

If it’s all right, python creates all these tables id database:

auth_group
auth_group_permissions
auth_permission
auth_user
auth_user_groups
auth_user_user_permissions
django_admin_log
django_content_type
django_migrations
django_session

try:

pip install mysqlclient

I recommend to use it in a virtual environment.

I think it is the version error.

try installing this in following order:

1. sudo apt-get install python3-mysqldb

2. pip3 install mysqlclient

3. python3 manage.py makemigrations

4. python3 manage.py migrate

Source

Install (if not found):

pip install mysql.connector

Settings:

'default': {
    'ENGINE': 'mysql.connector.django',
    'NAME': '...',
    'HOST': '...',
    'PORT': '3306',
    'USER': '...',
    'PASSWORD': '...',
}

I faced this similar error to when I wanted to use MySQL as the default database.
These error might be as a result of the fact that mysqlclient hasn’t been installed.
And this can be installed from the command line using;
pip install mysqlclient (for recent versions of python)
or pip install mysql-python (for older versions of python)
In my case, after meeting this requirement, I still had this same error and it was solved as below;
In your django project directory, select venv directory and under these directory,
select the pyvenv.cfg file and click allow on the dialog box which ask you if you want to edit this file. In this file,
include-system-site-packages is set to false. So change this line of code to true like this;

include-system-site-packages = true

Everything now works well

try this, simply using pip:
On Windows the recommended command is:

python -m pip install mysqlclient

use it in a virtual environment

I was stuck in this for a very long and then I realized what’s wrong django checks for mysqlclient if it’s not installed before django it throws this error so simple solution is

pip uninstall django
pip install mysqlclient
pip install django

Try this

apt-get install libmysqlclient-dev

and try again to install mysqlclient:

pip install mysqlclient

I had tried running different commands in this question. However none of them work for me in MXLinux. It’s a Debian 11 based distro (As of writing this). So, this answer should be applicable to Debian also.

sudo apt-get install python3-dev default-libmysqlclient-dev

Then install mysql in your python environment

pip install mysqlclient

I have tested this against, Python==3.8.13. AFAIK, this will work with Pyenv, Conda, Pipenv, Poetry etc. too.

Note:- This may work with Latest Version of Debian Based distros like LinuxMint, KDE Neon, Zorin OS, Kubuntu, elementary OS, Pop!_OS, Linux Lite, Linuxfx, etc. too.