The 'google-api-python-client' distribution was not found and is required by the application with pyinstaller

I was able to find the solution here Link

Update your version of google-api-python-client to the version specified in the link (worked for me)

Also made a little .bat file:

pyinstaller --hidden-import="pkg_resources.py2_warn" --hidden-import="googleapiclient" --hidden-import="apiclient"  main.py --onefile

Also of note: I ran the bat file in a virtual environment.

Literally just ran into this issue on windows, whereas macOS is okay. I'm building with fbs and PyQt5.

The Problem

google-api-python-client is not a python module, but a resource, which means you cannot inject it as a hidden-import. googleapiclient.model reads the distribution info from google-api-python-client folder as a packaged resource.

Your full error might look closer to this:

...
File "c:\python36\lib\site-packages\PyInstaller\loader\pyimod03_importers.py", line 627, in exec_module
    exec(bytecode, module.__dict__)
  File "site-packages\googleapiclient\http.py", line 67, in <module>
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 971, in _find_and_load
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 955, in _find_and_load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 665, in _load_unlocked
  File "c:\python36\lib\site-packages\PyInstaller\loader\pyimod03_importers.py", line 627, in exec_module
    exec(bytecode, module.__dict__)
  File "site-packages\googleapiclient\model.py", line 36, in <module>
  File "site-packages\pkg_resources\__init__.py", line 479, in get_distribution
  File "site-packages\pkg_resources\__init__.py", line 355, in get_provider
  File "site-packages\pkg_resources\__init__.py", line 898, in require
  File "site-packages\pkg_resources\__init__.py", line 784, in resolve
pkg_resources.DistributionNotFound: The 'google-api-python-client' distribution was not found and is required by the application

Solution 1 – If using fbs or other common packaging framework

1. Locate the google_api_python_client-*/
   • likely somewhere <pythonInstallLocation>/lib/site-packages/
2. Copy google_api_python_client-*/ into your application's src resource directory. For fbs this can be either:
   • src/freeze/windows/ (recommended), or
   • src/resources/windows/

Now when you fbs freeze and subsequently fbs installer your app, the google_api_python_client-*/ will be included in the built app's directory alongside other googleapiclient python libraries, and the error should go away.

See: fbs project directory structure

Solution 2 - No auto-packaging hooks (untested):

If your packaging solution does not have similar hooks as above, then:

1. Build your app
2. Manually copy the google_api_python_client-*/ folder from <pythonInstallLocation>/lib/site-packages/ into the built app's directory (or wherever your compiled python scripts are trying to access google-api-python-client.
3. Try starting the app

pythonfbsfreezegoogle-api-python-client