ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'win32api' right after I install channels

Question

I am buidling a chat app with WebSockets and django channels. I run 'pip install channels' it gets installed successfully. Then I install 'asgi_redis'. That too gets installed. Now when I try to import channels.asgi it gives me error. Also suddenly my manage.py shell stops working. In other django projects it works fine.

Error when I try to access shell:

C:\Users\gdhameeja\Desktop\chatapp\chat>manage.py shell
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Users\gdhameeja\Desktop\chatapp\chat\manage.py", line 22, in <module>
    execute_from_command_line(sys.argv)
  File "C:\Users\gdhameeja\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36\lib\site-packages\django-1.11.6-py3.6.egg\django\core\management\__init__.py", line 364, in execute_from_command_line
    utility.execute()
  File "C:\Users\gdhameeja\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36\lib\site-packages\django-1.11.6-py3.6.egg\django\core\management\__init__.py", line 338, in execute
    django.setup()
  File "C:\Users\gdhameeja\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36\lib\site-packages\django-1.11.6-py3.6.egg\django\__init__.py", line 27, in setup
    apps.populate(settings.INSTALLED_APPS)
  File "C:\Users\gdhameeja\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36\lib\site-packages\django-1.11.6-py3.6.egg\django\apps\registry.py", line 116, in populate
    app_config.ready()
  File "C:\Users\gdhameeja\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36\lib\site-packages\channels\apps.py", line 17, in ready
    monkeypatch_django()
  File "C:\Users\gdhameeja\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36\lib\site-packages\channels\hacks.py", line 10, in monkeypatch_django
    from .management.commands.runserver import Command as RunserverCommand
  File "C:\Users\gdhameeja\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36\lib\site-packages\channels\management\commands\runserver.py", line 5, in <module>
    from daphne.server import Server, build_endpoint_description_strings
  File "C:\Users\gdhameeja\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36\lib\site-packages\daphne\server.py", line 9, in <module>
    from twisted.internet.endpoints import serverFromString
  File "C:\Users\gdhameeja\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36\lib\site-packages\twisted\internet\endpoints.py", line 41, in <module>
    from twisted.internet.stdio import StandardIO, PipeAddress
  File "C:\Users\gdhameeja\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36\lib\site-packages\twisted\internet\stdio.py", line 30, in <module>
    from twisted.internet import _win32stdio
  File "C:\Users\gdhameeja\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36\lib\site-packages\twisted\internet\_win32stdio.py", line 9, in <module>
    import win32api
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'win32api'

Everything before installing channels seems to be working fine. settings.py:

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    'django.contrib.admin',
    'django.contrib.auth',
    'django.contrib.contenttypes',
    'django.contrib.sessions',
    'django.contrib.messages',
    'django.contrib.staticfiles',
    'chat',
    'channels',]
CHANNEL_LAYERS = {
    'default': {
        'BACKEND' : 'asgi_redis.RedisChannelLayer',
        'CONFIG':{
            'hosts': [os.environ.get('REDIS_URL', 'redis://localhost:6379')],
        },
        'ROUTING' : 'chat.routing.channel_routing',
    },
}

pip freeze:

C:\Users\gdhameeja\Desktop\chatapp\chat>pip freeze
asgi-redis==1.4.3
asgiref==1.1.2
attrs==17.2.0
autobahn==17.9.3
Automat==0.6.0
channels==1.1.8
constantly==15.1.0
daphne==1.3.0
django==1.11.6
hyperlink==17.3.1
incremental==17.5.0
msgpack-python==0.4.8
pytz==2017.2
redis==2.10.6
six==1.11.0
Twisted==17.9.0
txaio==2.8.2
virtualenv==15.1.0
websocket-client==0.44.0
zope.interface==4.4.3

Answer 1

https://github.com/django/channels/issues/498 Refer this post. After you get that error, manually install pypiwin32 package.

pip install pypiwin32

Even though your ide won't recognise channels to import from, ignore it and runserver. It'll work.