ImportError: cannot import name 'MutableMapping' from 'collections'

How to fix ImportError: cannot import name 'MutableMapping' from 'collections'

Python 3.10 removed the abstract base classes from the top-level collections module. Change from collections import MutableMapping to from collections.abc import MutableMapping. Same for Iterable, Mapping, Sequence, Callable. If it is a library doing this, upgrade the library; collections.abc has been the right home since Python 3.3.

The exact error

ImportError: cannot import name 'MutableMapping' from 'collections'

Fix it

1. Find it: grep -rn "from collections import" --include=*.py .. Expected: the offending lines

2. Change to from collections.abc import MutableMapping (etc.). Expected: works on 3.10+ and all the way back to 3.3

3. Library-owned: upgrade the library. Expected: upstream fixed long ago

When this applies

Python 3.10+ and from collections import [ABC]

When this does NOT apply

Python < 3.10 (it works there, with a deprecation warning)

Versions

Python >= 3.10

Why it happens

The ABCs lived in collections.abc since 3.3; the 3.10 cleanup removed the aliases.

Edge cases

collections.abc has existed since 3.3, so the fix is back-compatible; no version guard needed.