Visual Studio Code is rejecting the Tensorflow installation in a Virtual Environment

Question

I created a virtual environment called env using

python -m venv env

.\\env\\Scripts\\activate.bat

pip install tensorflow

I verified tensorflow is in the env\\Lib\\site-packages folder

Next I loaded VS Code and created a workspace, added a python file, it prompted me to install pylint, I typed in python: select interpreter and I browsed to C:\\Users\\admin\\env\\Scripts folder

This is the command line at the beginning of the script

(env) PS C:\Users\admin\env\project>  cd 'c:\Users\admin\env\project'; & 'C:\Users\admin\env\Scripts\python.exe' 'c:\Users\admin\.vscode\extensions\ms-python.python-2020.8.106424\pythonFiles\lib\python\debugpy\launcher' '54436' '--' 'c:\Users\admin\env\project\face_gan.py'

This is the error I get when debugging the python file:

ImportError: Keras requires TensorFlow 2.2 or higher. Install TensorFlow via `pip install tensorflow`
PS C:\Users\admin\env\project> & C:/Users/admin/env/Scripts/Activate.ps1

When I type in pip install tensorflow in VS Code terminal, it shows its already installed

(env) PS C:\Users\admin\env\project> pip install tensorflow
Requirement already satisfied: tensorflow in c:\users\admin\env\lib\site-packages (2.3.0)

I don't understand this, is it not running in virtual environment? Why is it executing C:/Users/admin/env/Scripts/Activate.ps1 at the end of the debugging session, not at the beginning

Lastly, is running python from the virtual environment folder C:\\Users\\admin\\env\\Scripts the same as using the activate.bat file or the source command? Does it automatically defer to using the C:\\Users\\admin\\env\\Lib folder, or is it still trying to use the default python installation to look for Tensorflow?

What step did I miss to make it use the virtual environment correct in VS Code?

Answer 1

First question: executing C:/Users/admin/env/Scripts/Activate.ps1 after debugging command make no difference. It just because it's the first command of the terminal. You can run it again to make a try.

Second question: Yes, that's the same. In your case, it will add 'C:\\Users\\admin\\env' and 'C:\\Users\\admin\\env\\lib\\site-packages' path to the PYTHONPATH variable.

You can through these codes to get the PYTHONPATH(the default search path for module files) variable value:

import sys
print(sys.path)

If you import 'tensorflow' directly. you will find you can import it correctly. It's a version problem. You should downgrade the version of the packages, and you can refer to this comment to get some useful information.