ImportError: cannot import name '_message' from 'google.protobuf.pyext' (c:\programdata\anaconda3\lib\site-packages\google\protobuf\pyext\__init__.py)

Question

I am trying this command(That I don't know what it does: I only following a tutorial):

tensorboard --logdir=/tmp/tensorflow/rnn_words

And get this result:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "c:\programdata\anaconda3\lib\runpy.py", line 193, in _run_module_as_main
    "__main__", mod_spec)
  File "c:\programdata\anaconda3\lib\runpy.py", line 85, in _run_code
    exec(code, run_globals)
  File "C:\ProgramData\Anaconda3\Scripts\tensorboard.exe\__main__.py", line 5, in <module>
  File "c:\programdata\anaconda3\lib\site-packages\tensorboard\main.py", line 45, in <module>
    from tensorboard import default
  File "c:\programdata\anaconda3\lib\site-packages\tensorboard\default.py", line 34, in <module>
    import tensorflow as tf
  File "c:\programdata\anaconda3\lib\site-packages\tensorflow\__init__.py", line 24, in <module>
    from tensorflow.python import pywrap_tensorflow  # pylint: disable=unused-import
  File "c:\programdata\anaconda3\lib\site-packages\tensorflow\python\__init__.py", line 52, in <module>
    from tensorflow.core.framework.graph_pb2 import *
  File "c:\programdata\anaconda3\lib\site-packages\tensorflow\core\framework\graph_pb2.py", line 6, in <module>
    from google.protobuf import descriptor as _descriptor
  File "c:\programdata\anaconda3\lib\site-packages\google\protobuf\descriptor.py", line 47, in <module>
    from google.protobuf.pyext import _message
ImportError: cannot import name '_message' from 'google.protobuf.pyext' (c:\programdata\anaconda3\lib\site-packages\google\protobuf\pyext\__init__.py)

What does the above command do? Why do I get this error message?

C:\Windows\system32>python --version
Python 3.7.1

C:\Windows\system32>pip install protobuf
Requirement already satisfied: protobuf in c:\programdata\anaconda3\lib\site-packages (3.6.1)
Requirement already satisfied: six>=1.9 in c:\programdata\anaconda3\lib\site-packages (from protobuf) (1.12.0)
Requirement already satisfied: setuptools in c:\programdata\anaconda3\lib\site-packages (from protobuf) (40.6.3)

Answer 1

if you are in mac, please try it pip install --upgrade --force-reinstall protobuf

Answer 2

Works with pip install protobuf==3.14.0 with Python 3.9

You can test with the following:

# python
Python 3.9.13 (main, Aug  2 2022, 11:20:39)
>>> from google.protobuf.pyext.cpp_message import GeneratedProtocolMessageType

Answer 3

Please upgrade protobuf using the following command:

pip3 install --upgrade --force-reinstall protobuf==4.32.2

Answer 4

for me I downgraded protobuf pip install protobuf==3.19.6

Answer 5

According to the resolution of tensorboard issue #1556 , you should also be able to fix your problem by upgrading to tensorboard==1.13.0 (or later).

IMO, this is the cleanest solution.