Hidden import Tensorflow package not found when using Pyinstaller

Question

I am trying to convert my object detector python project into an executable file but I always get these warnings and my executable file would not run.

64422 WARNING: Hidden import "tensorflow._api.v2.compat.v1.estimator" not found!
64425 WARNING: Hidden import "tensorflow._api.v2.compat.v2.compat.v2.keras.metrics" not found!
64843 WARNING: Hidden import "tensorflow._api.v2.compat.v1.compat.v1.keras.applications.resnet50" not found!
64844 WARNING: Hidden import "tensorflow._api.v2.compat.v1.compat.v1.keras.applications.resnet" not found!
64845 WARNING: Hidden import "tensorflow._api.v2.compat.v2.compat.v2.keras.backend" not found!
64857 WARNING: Hidden import "tensorflow._api.v2.compat.v1.compat.v1.estimator.tpu" not found!
64859 WARNING: Hidden import "tensorflow._api.v2.compat.v2.compat.v1.keras.applications.mobilenet" not found!
64892 WARNING: Hidden import "tensorflow._api.v2.compat.v1.compat.v1.keras.applications.vgg19" not found!
64894 WARNING: Hidden import "tensorflow._api.v2.compat.v2.compat.v2.keras.preprocessing.text" not found!
64896 WARNING: Hidden import "tensorflow._api.v2.compat.v1.compat.v1.estimator.tpu.experimental" not found!
64899 WARNING: Hidden import "tensorflow._api.v2.compat.v1.compat.v1.keras.applications.resnet_v2" not found!
64956 WARNING: Hidden import "tensorflow._api.v2.compat.v2.compat.v1.keras.wrappers.scikit_learn" not found!
64957 WARNING: Hidden import "tensorflow._api.v2.compat.v2.compat.v2.keras.applications.resnet50" not found!
64958 WARNING: Hidden import "tensorflow._api.v2.compat.v1.compat.v1.keras.wrappers.scikit_learn" not found!
65073 WARNING: Hidden import "tensorflow._api.v2.compat.v1.compat.v2.keras.applications.imagenet_utils" not found!
65073 WARNING: Hidden import "tensorflow._api.v2.compat.v1.compat.v2.keras.datasets.cifar100" not found!
65238 WARNING: Hidden import "tensorflow._api.v2.compat.v1.compat.v1.keras.optimizers" not found!

My project structure is

- project folder
  - venv
  - main.py
  - detect.py

Inside the detect.py I have the following imports

import tensorflow as tf
from tensorflow.python.saved_model import tag_constants
from tensorflow.compat.v1 import ConfigProto
from tensorflow.compat.v1 import InteractiveSession

The tensorflow module can be found in the site-packages inside the venv folder

The solutions that I have tried are adding the --hidden-import tensorflow flag as said in this Question

pyinstaller --hidden-import tensorflow --onefile main.py

I have also tried this approach by creating a hooks directory with hook-tensorflow.py file

- project folder
   - venv
   - hooks
      - hook-tensorflow.py
   - main.py
   - detect.py

hook-tensorflow.py

from PyInstaller.utils.hooks import collect_all


def hook(hook_api):
    packages = [
        'tensorflow'
    ]
    for package in packages:
        datas, binaries, hiddenimports = collect_all(package)
        hook_api.add_datas(datas)
        hook_api.add_binaries(binaries)
        hook_api.add_imports(*hiddenimports)

And then issuing this terminal command

pyinstaller --additional-hooks-dir=hooks --onefile main.py

But still, the same warning still persists and my executable file would not run.

Answer 1

You can try creating a virtual environment with python=3.8, if you are using anaconda then run the command conda create -n env1 python=3.8 After this to use the environment just run conda activate env1 and install only the required packages by your applications.

Advantage of doing this is it saves the time while compiling the EXE file and the file size will also be comparatively less.

I was facing the same issue, this trick worked for me.

You might not have to add the hooks to it also using this.

Remember to install pyinstaller in the environment and always activate before compiling the EXE.