ImportError: cannot import name 'force_text' from 'django.utils.encoding'

How to fix ImportError: cannot import name 'force_text' from 'django.utils.encoding'

force_text was renamed force_str in Django 3 and the old name removed in Django 4. In your code, replace from django.utils.encoding import force_text with force_str. If the traceback is inside a third-party package (graphene-django, django-elasticsearch-dsl, simplejwt...), upgrade that package instead of patching site-packages.

The exact error

ImportError: cannot import name 'force_text' from 'django.utils.encoding'

Fix it

1. Find the culprit: grep -rn "force_text" --include=*.py . and check the traceback's file path.

Expected: you know whether it is your code or a library

1. Your code: replace forcetext with forcestr (same behavior).

Expected: import works on Django 4+

1. A library: pip install -U [library].

Expected: fixed upstream release resolves it

When this applies

Django 4+ raises this from your code or a dependency

When this does NOT apply

Django < 4 (force_text still exists there, deprecated)

Versions

Django >= 4.0

Why it happens

Django dropped the Python-2-era text/bytes naming; forcetext -> forcestr.

Edge cases

smarttext -> smartstr and ugettext -> gettext were removed in the same cleanup; fix them together.