python - Modules are installed using pip on OSX but not found when importing

Question

I successfully install different modules using pip and they are shown in the

pip list

such as:

beautifulsoup4 (4.4.1)
requests (2.10.0)
Scrapy (1.1.0)

From Terminal

However, whenever I try to import it

import beautifulsoup4 / import bs4 or import Scrapy or import requests

the following error is shown:

$ python
Python 2.7.5 (default, Mar  9 2014, 22:15:05) 
[GCC 4.2.1 Compatible Apple LLVM 5.0 (clang-500.0.68)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import requests
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ImportError: No module named requests

Update: if I launch python when I am at the correct site-packages directory

$ pwd
/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages
$ python
Python 2.7.5 (default, Mar  9 2014, 22:15:05)
>>> import requests
>>> import bs4
>>> import scrapy

Then it works. This would solve the issue if writing directly on the Terminal. However, I have no clue about how to make it work inside a file.py, which will be the normal use.

As far as I know, I only have Python2.7 installed.

From file.py

If I have a file.py saved in some local folder. This contains, for instance

import requests
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup

when I try

python file.py

I get the same error.

Approach

Same happens with any other module from the list. I would think pip is installing them in a directory that Python is not reading, but as per what I read, it is the correct one.

They are all installed here:

/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages

Output requested by Padraic Cunningham:

$ which -a pip
/usr/local/bin/pip
$ which -a python
/usr/bin/python
/usr/local/bin/python

Output requested by leovp:

$ pip -V
pip 8.1.2 from /usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages (python 2.7)

Threads already checked

I have checked the following threads, but unfortunately they did not help me to solve the issue:

• installing pyside using PIP - nmake not found
• PIp installs but module is not found ==> might have provided the right answer, but the links given do not work anymore
• google.protobuf installed, but module not found
• Python pip install module is not found. How to link python to pip location?

Any ideas of what the problem is?

Answer 1

Here the answer that worked, which is basically what has been explained in the comments of the question. However, I thought it would be useful to have it explained as a clear and well structured answer.

As highlighted, the problem was that I was not using the interpreter that pip was installing for. The command which shows where pip was installing the modules:

$ which -a pip
/usr/local/bin/pip

and where the different python versions were located:

$ which -a python
/usr/bin/python
/usr/local/bin/python

That is, my system/default python was

/usr/bin/python

while pip was installing for

/usr/local/bin/python

Therefore, I could not import anything I installed when I just typed python, because the /usr/bin/python interpreter was the one started.

Solution

Install pip again specifying the destination of the modules that will be installed. This must be the destination for the system/default python.

This has been done in two steps:

1. Downloding get-pip.py from bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py. (You may need to use the deprecated one for Python 2: bootstrap.pypa.io/2.7/get-pip.py)

2. Installing it with the following command

   sudo /usr/bin/python get-pip.py

Note that without the sudo I got an error and was not able to install pip.