Cannot use ImageField because Pillow is not installed

The error

We reproduced it with a one-app project containing this model, in an environment that has Django 6 but no Pillow:

from django.db import models


class Product(models.Model):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=100)
    photo = models.ImageField(upload_to="products/")

python manage.py check

SystemCheckError: System check identified some issues:

ERRORS:
shop.Product.photo: (fields.E210) Cannot use ImageField because Pillow is not installed.
	HINT: Get Pillow at https://pypi.org/project/Pillow/ or run command "python -m pip install Pillow".

System check identified 1 issue (0 silenced).

It is a system check error, so it appears on runserver, migrate, makemigrations and check alike, and it stops all of them.

Case 1: Pillow is not in this environment

python -m pip install --quiet pillow
python manage.py check

System check identified no issues (0 silenced).

The usual cause is installing Pillow into a different Python than the one running manage.py: globally instead of in the project's virtual environment, or the other way round. In production, it is usually a requirements.txt without Pillow, so the Docker image or server was built without it. Print what the project actually uses:

import sys

import django
import PIL

print("Python: ", sys.executable)
print("Django: ", django.__version__, "from", django.__file__)
print("Pillow: ", PIL.__version__, "from", PIL.__file__)

Python:  /home/you/.venv/bin/python
Django:  6.1.2 from /home/you/.venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/django/__init__.py
Pillow:  12.3.0 from /home/you/.venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/PIL/__init__.py

Run that with the same command or IDE configuration that starts Django. The install guide covers virtual environments on each OS.

Case 2: Pillow is installed, but cannot be imported

Django runs from PIL import Image and treats any ImportError as "not installed". So a broken Pillow produces exactly the same message. Here a stray copy of Pillow without its compiled core sits next to manage.py:

python manage.py check

shop.Product.photo: (fields.E210) Cannot use ImageField because Pillow is not installed.
	HINT: Get Pillow at https://pypi.org/project/Pillow/ or run command "python -m pip install Pillow".

System check identified 1 issue (0 silenced).

Django's message hides the real problem. Import Pillow yourself, from the same folder and environment:

python -c "from PIL import Image"

ImportError: cannot import name '_imaging' from 'PIL' (/home/you/project/PIL/__init__.py)

Now the cause is visible, and the fix is the one for that error: here, cannot import name '_imaging'. Other causes that look the same from Django: a file or folder named PIL in the project (see No module named 'PIL'), a Pillow wheel for another Python version or platform copied into a deployment, and missing system libraries on unusual Linux images.

Do you need ImageField at all?

ImageField is a FileField that also opens each upload with Pillow to check it is an image and can record its width and height (width_field, height_field). If you don't want that validation, a FileField works without Pillow. But the check is worth having: it rejects files that only pretend to be images, and you will probably want Pillow anyway to make thumbnails.

Related

The outputs and images on this page are the real results of running every example with Pillow 12.3.0 on Python 3.13 (Linux) on 2026-10-15. Every example is also re-run automatically on macOS (Darwin 25.6.0, Pillow 12.3.0), Linux (Linux 6.17.0-1022-azure, Pillow 12.3.0), Windows (Windows 2025Server, Pillow 12.3.0); the line under each example shows the result per operating system. The DejaVu Sans font files sit next to each script so font examples behave the same everywhere. Sample photos: NASA/Sam Lott, public domain. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.