Cannot import cv2 in python in OSX

Question:

I have installed OpenCV 3.1 in my Mac, cv2 is also installed through pip install cv2.

vinllen@ $ pip install cv2
You are using pip version 7.1.0, however version 7.1.2 is available.
You should consider upgrading via the 'pip install --upgrade pip' command.
Requirement already satisfied (use --upgrade to upgrade): cv2 in /usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages

But it looks like cv2 and cv cannot be used:

Python 2.7.10 (default, Jul 13 2015, 12:05:58)
[GCC 4.2.1 Compatible Apple LLVM 6.1.0 (clang-602.0.53)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import cv2
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ImportError: No module named cv2
>>> import cv
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ImportError: No module named cv

I have tried almost all the solutions list online, but cannot work.

Asked By: vinllen

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Answers:

I do not know what pip install cv2 actually installs… but is surely not OpenCV. pip install cv2 actually installs this, which are some blog distribution utilities, not sure what it is, but it is not OpenCV.


To properly install OpenCV, check any of the links @udit043 added in the comment, or refer to any of the tutorials bellow:

Find here a tutorial on how to install OpenCV on OS X:
http://www.pyimagesearch.com/2015/06/15/install-opencv-3-0-and-python-2-7-on-osx/

You need to actually compile OpenCV from source and activate python bindings, which takes a while.

Another option is to use brew to get OpenCV, but doesn’t neccesarilly get you the last version nor a fully optimized one:

https://web.archive.org/web/20171218032016/http://www.mobileway.net/2015/02/14/install-opencv-for-python-on-mac-os-x/

Answered By: Imanol Luengo

Make sure that numpy, other dependency is installed prior installing OpenCV
Also if you installed using PIP then check the installed packages using

pip freeze
Answered By: Vijay

I used
conda install opencv
and it installed fine for me.

You might want to try this if you are using Anaconda.

Answered By: Monica Heddneck

You can install by

conda install -c https://conda.binstar.org/menpo opencv
Answered By: Alice

You can install by

pip install opencv-python
Answered By: Ráfagan

I had the same problem; here’s what worked for me: conda install -c conda-forge nb_conda

If you haven’t already, do the following to get conda up and running on OS X (taken from docs):

  1. Download Miniconda
  2. Download Anaconda
  3. Locate to the director that contains the Miniconda file and run bash Miniconda3-latest-MacOSX-x86_64.sh in Terminal
  4. Follow the prompts to install Anaconda
  5. Run conda install -c conda-forge nb_conda

You could also try conda install -c conda-forge opencv and conda install -c conda-forge/label/broken opencv if step 5 doesn’t work, as someone recommended when I had the same problem. Hope this helps!

Answered By: solo

For me installation using conda didn’t worked.
While installing it using pip worked:

pip install opencv-python

os: macos Catalina

Answered By: Saurabh Singh

pip is renamed to pip3 so please use

pip3 install opencv-python

Answered By: Xcoder

pip3 install opencv-python

Should do the job.

Answered By: PyPixel
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