python cannot import opencv because it can't find libjpeg.8.dylib

Question

Trying to get opencv for python working on Mac OSX - Mavericks but keep getting an image not found for libjpeg.8.dylib when doing import cv from python

(Recently upd

Answer 1

The quick and dirty solution for this is to make a symlink inside of the /usr/local/lib folder pointing to the actual location of libjpeg.8.dylib, like this:

$ sudo ln -s /usr/local/Cellar/jpeg/8d/lib/libjpeg.8.dylib /usr/local/lib/libjpeg.8.dylib

The problem is opencv and python expect libjpeg.8.dylib to be in /usr/local/lib/ but homebrew installs it in /usr/local/Cellar/, hence annoying error.

Answer 2

Just had a similar problem to this (in python import opencv was working for me one day, then the next it threw the same error you are reporting) and this solution just worked for me:

Upgrade your homebrew opencv eg.:

brew upgrade opencv (or in my case brew upgrade opencv3)

Hope this helps

Answer 3

I had a similar problem with the Pillow library on macOS. The solution proposed here to install it from source worked for me. I had to install it to /usr/local/ for Pillow to find it. You'll need command-line tools, which is the purpose of the first line:

xcode-select --install
curl -O -J -L http://www.ijg.org/files/jpegsrc.v8.tar.gz
tar xvfz jpeg*tar.gz                 # Unzip and untar what you downloaded
cd jpeg-8                            # Change directory to wherever it unpacked to
./configure --prefix="/usr/local"    # Configure with the necessary prefix
make
sudo make install

Answer 4

I used brew a for installing OpenCV on my mac, and ran into this same problem, but it was with an Xcode C++ console application.

However an alternative method to solve the problem is to copy cp the file to the library location.

cp /usr/local/Cellar/jpeg/8d/lib/libjpeg.8.dylib /usr/local/lib/libjpeg.8.dylib

Or the latter, which I don't suggest, just stating another method is to use move mv the entire file location into your /usr/local/lib/ directory.

mv /usr/local/Cellar/jpeg/8d/lib/libjpeg.8.dylib /usr/local/lib/