notebook: Unable to import tensorflow in jupyter (yet able to import tensorflow in python and ipython)

Try running the following in both the notebook and ipython:

import sys
sys.executable

Odds are they are using different python executables. If this is the case, you can update your python kernelspec. See https://github.com/jupyter/notebook/issues/397 for reference.

Are you launching the Jupyter applications from a GUI launcher? If so, they won’t pick up environment variables set in .bashrc or .bash_profile. A simple workaround is to launch them from a terminal.

On Linux, you can set environment variables in .profile, which is run when you log in. I don’t know how to do the same on OSX.

@rylanchiu First, run jupyter kernelspec list and you will see an output like:

Available kernels:
  babel           /Users/grant/Library/Jupyter/kernels/babel
  bash            /Users/grant/Library/Jupyter/kernels/bash
  coffeescript    /Users/grant/Library/Jupyter/kernels/coffeescript
  javascript      /Users/grant/Library/Jupyter/kernels/javascript
  jskernel        /Users/grant/Library/Jupyter/kernels/jskernel
  python2         /Users/grant/Library/Jupyter/kernels/python2
  python3         /usr/local/share/jupyter/kernels/python3

To edit the spec for python3, let’s see which files are in its directory by running ls /usr/local/share/jupyter/kernels/python3:

kernel.json	logo-32x32.png	logo-64x64.png

Lastly, we want to open kernel.json in our text editor, there are several ways to do this:

• If you use the Atom editor, simply run this in the terminal: atom /usr/local/share/jupyter/kernels/python3/kernel.json
• To open the file in your default handler for .json files: open /usr/local/share/jupyter/kernels/python3/kernel.json
• vim: vim /usr/local/share/jupyter/kernels/python3/kernel.json

I had a similar issue. It could be that your Jupyter notebook is looking into a different path than where you have installed tensorflow. You want to make sure Jupyter opens the correct Python through the correct kernel. One way to fix this is to install nb_conda by typing the following in your terminal:

conda install -c anaconda-nb-extensions nb_conda

You can then run Jupyter and when selecting a notebook from the New dropdown menu, make sure you select the Python that is connected to the kernel you want (kernel where you have all the libraries and dependencies such as tensorflow)

I am launching from terminal, with the command jupyter-notebook --no-browser.

Ok, to find the location of your kernelspecs: jupyter kernelspec list

Then, edit your python kernelspec in your editor. I think the easiest fix is to rename your python executable from an absolute path (e.g. “/Users/grant/anaconda/bin/python”) to just “python”.

I am on Windows 10 and using Tensorflow (tf) 1.13. I had this problem as well. I had tf installed (using conda) into a conda virtual env (v-env). I installed ipykernel and made it available within the notebook. However, I couldn’t import tf from my notebook.

Here is how I resolved it.

• I cloned the virtual env (in which tf was installed) into a new virtual env (since I didn’t want to download the entire package again).
• And it worked (I don’t know why)

Summary: - Create a conda virtual env - Install tensorflow (into the v-env) using conda - Install ipykernel into the v-env and install it. Help here

I have tried your way @gnestor, unfortunately, it did not work. So I kept searching and found an answer from StackOverflow (https://stackoverflow.com/questions/37061089/trouble-with-tensorflow-in-jupyter-notebook). After following the steps shown in the answer and changed python executable python, as you recommended, from “/Users/username/anaconda/bin/python” to just “/Users/username/anaconda/envs/virtualproject/bin/python”, the jupyter notebook successfully imported tensorflow!

@gnestor Thanks for your detailed and helpful instruction! It solved my problem perfectly!

Try running the following in both the notebook and ipython:

import sys
sys.executable

Odds are they are using different python executables. If this is the case, you can update your python kernelspec. See #397 for reference.

Yes! that worked thanks

I solved the problem by adding "env":{"LD_LIBRARY_PATH":"/usr/local/cuda-9.0/lib64:[...]" to my envirnment’s kernelspec. As mentioned above, the spec directory can be found with jupyter kernelspec list

FWIW on OSX, this helped me: https://github.com/jupyter/jupyter/issues/245#issuecomment-286927371

@takluyver Thanks. As I am running python 2.7 I couldn’t run it. However, I imported os and checked os.environ, and I found I have ‘DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH’ in my python os.environ, but not in my Jupyter console os.environ.

So this must be the cause. But I am not sure how to solve it.

Error importing tensorflow. Unless you are using bazel, you should not try to import tensorflow from its source directory; please exit the tensorflow source tree, and relaunch your python interpreter from there.

Did you install tensorflow from source? Are you running jupyter from the ts source directory?