DLL load failed while importing _imaging: The specified module could not be found

[mygithubaccount12]

What did you do?

from matplotlib import rcParams

What did you expect to happen?

The program to execute beyond import statement.

What actually happened?

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "e:\Minitab_Killer\rcParams_print_out.py", line 2, in <module>
    from matplotlib import rcParams 
  File "C:\Users\D\miniconda3\lib\site-packages\matplotlib\__init__.py", line 107, in <module>
    from . import _api, cbook, docstring, rcsetup
  File "C:\Users\D\miniconda3\lib\site-packages\matplotlib\rcsetup.py", line 24, in <module>
    from matplotlib import _api, animation, cbook
  File "C:\Users\D\miniconda3\lib\site-packages\matplotlib\animation.py", line 34, in <module>
    from PIL import Image
  File "C:\Users\D\miniconda3\lib\site-packages\PIL\Image.py", line 103, in <module>
    from . import _imaging as core
ImportError: DLL load failed while importing _imaging: The specified module could not be found.

What are your OS, Python and Pillow versions?

• OS: Windows 10
• Python: 3.9.18
• Pillow: 10.0.1

I'm using anaconda (package list below).

I've created a new environment in conda and only ran the matplotlib install command , uninstalled Python outside of the anaconda environment, tried pip to uninstall/reinstall while trying every answer on SO I could find, but strictly using conda is highly desirable.

I've scoured the internet for days and have tried what I could find to no avail.

Name Version Build Channel

brotli 1.1.0 hcfcfb64_1 conda-forge
brotli-bin 1.1.0 hcfcfb64_1 conda-forge
bzip2 1.0.8 h8ffe710_4 conda-forge
ca-certificates 2023.7.22 h56e8100_0 conda-forge
certifi 2023.7.22 pyhd8ed1ab_0 conda-forge
contourpy 1.1.1 py39h1f6ef14_1 conda-forge
cycler 0.12.1 pyhd8ed1ab_0 conda-forge
fonttools 4.43.1 py39ha55989b_0 conda-forge
freetype 2.12.1 hdaf720e_2 conda-forge
gettext 0.21.1 h5728263_0 conda-forge
glib 2.78.0 h12be248_0 conda-forge
glib-tools 2.78.0 h12be248_0 conda-forge
icu 58.2 ha925a31_3
importlib-resources 6.1.0 pyhd8ed1ab_0 conda-forge
importlib_resources 6.1.0 pyhd8ed1ab_0 conda-forge
intel-openmp 2023.2.0 h57928b3_50496 conda-forge
jpeg 9e hcfcfb64_3 conda-forge
kiwisolver 1.4.5 py39h1f6ef14_1 conda-forge
krb5 1.20.1 heb0366b_0 conda-forge
lerc 3.0 hd77b12b_0
libblas 3.9.0 8_mkl conda-forge
libbrotlicommon 1.1.0 hcfcfb64_1 conda-forge
libbrotlidec 1.1.0 hcfcfb64_1 conda-forge
libbrotlienc 1.1.0 hcfcfb64_1 conda-forge
libcblas 3.9.0 8_mkl conda-forge
libclang 14.0.6 default_hb5a9fac_1
libclang13 14.0.6 default_h8e68704_1
libdeflate 1.17 h2bbff1b_1
libffi 3.4.2 h8ffe710_5 conda-forge
libglib 2.78.0 he8f3873_0 conda-forge
libiconv 1.17 h8ffe710_0 conda-forge
liblapack 3.9.0 8_mkl conda-forge
libpng 1.6.39 h19919ed_0 conda-forge
libpq 12.15 h906ac69_1
libtiff 4.5.1 hd77b12b_0
libwebp 1.3.2 hcfcfb64_1 conda-forge
libwebp-base 1.3.2 hcfcfb64_0 conda-forge
libxml2 2.10.4 hc3477c8_0 conda-forge
libxslt 1.1.37 h0192164_0 conda-forge
libzlib 1.2.13 hcfcfb64_5 conda-forge
matplotlib 3.8.0 py39hcbf5309_2 conda-forge
matplotlib-base 3.8.0 py39hf19769e_2 conda-forge
mkl 2020.4 hb70f87d_311 conda-forge
munkres 1.1.4 pyh9f0ad1d_0 conda-forge
numpy 1.26.0 py39hddb5d58_0 conda-forge
openjpeg 2.5.0 ha2aaf27_2 conda-forge
openssl 3.1.4 hcfcfb64_0 conda-forge
packaging 23.2 pyhd8ed1ab_0 conda-forge
pcre2 10.40 h17e33f8_0 conda-forge
pillow 10.0.1 py39h045eedc_0
pip 23.3 py39haa95532_0
ply 3.11 py_1 conda-forge
pyparsing 3.1.1 pyhd8ed1ab_0 conda-forge
pyqt 5.15.7 py39hd77b12b_0
pyqt5-sip 12.11.0 py39hd77b12b_0
python 3.9.18 h1aa4202_0
python-dateutil 2.8.2 pyhd8ed1ab_0 conda-forge
python_abi 3.9 2_cp39 conda-forge
qt-main 5.15.2 h879a1e9_9
qt-webengine 5.15.9 h5bd16bc_7
qtwebkit 5.212 h2bbfb41_5
setuptools 68.0.0 py39haa95532_0
sip 6.6.2 py39hd77b12b_0
six 1.16.0 pyh6c4a22f_0 conda-forge
sqlite 3.41.2 h2bbff1b_0
tk 8.6.13 hcfcfb64_0 conda-forge
toml 0.10.2 pyhd8ed1ab_0 conda-forge
tornado 6.3.3 py39ha55989b_1 conda-forge
tzdata 2023c h04d1e81_0
ucrt 10.0.22621.0 h57928b3_0 conda-forge
unicodedata2 15.1.0 py39ha55989b_0 conda-forge
vc 14.2 h21ff451_1
vc14_runtime 14.36.32532 hdcecf7f_17 conda-forge
vs2015_runtime 14.36.32532 h05e6639_17 conda-forge
wheel 0.41.2 py39haa95532_0
xz 5.4.2 h8cc25b3_0
zipp 3.17.0 pyhd8ed1ab_0 conda-forge
zlib 1.2.13 hcfcfb64_5 conda-forge
zstd 1.5.5 h12be248_0 conda-forge

[radarhere]

Hi. This type of error has been encountered before - #2945, #3755 and conda-forge/pillow-feedstock#45

Looking over those, here are some suggestions.

• 'conda install --channel conda-forge pillow=10.1.0'
• 'conda update conda'
• 'conda update --all'
• 'conda install -c anaconda pillow'
• Installing pywin32-ctypes

What specific version of Anaconda are you using? Are you running in 32-bit or 64-bit mode?

If you have the time, the most effective way to get help would be to reproduce your problem in Docker or on GitHub Actions and link to that from here, so that we can test solutions directly.

[mygithubaccount12]

@radarhere thank you for your quick response.

Based on your suggestion I started to work through the list of your suggestions and ran conda update conda first - it did the trick.

I'm embarrassed and relieved at the same time. I burned a lot of hours trying all kinds of stuff when it was something so fundamental to resolve.

Such is life.

Thank you for helping me.

[jlgutenson]

I was having a totally separate issue but it was related to the same error everyone else was experiencing. I was receiving the same error message with Pyarrow. Downgrading my conda environment to Python version 3.10 and installing Pillow version 9.0.1 worked for me as well.