No module named 'exifread.classes' when running mapsyncer

[stormsnsnow]

Short Information

• Used Toolkit version: 1.0.4
• Operating System: Windows

Problem Definition Briefly (might be explained in steps)

• When running MapSyncer, it results in an error message
• No module named 'exifread.classes'

Expected Output

• Starts properly

Actual Output

• (mapsyncer_env) C:\Users\storm\MapSyncer>runmapsyncer
  Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "", line 198, in _run_module_as_main
  File "", line 88, in run_code
  File "C:\Users\storm\MapSyncer\mapsyncer_env\Scripts\RunMapSyncer.exe_main.py", line 4, in
  File "C:\Users\storm\MapSyncer\MapSyncer\app.py", line 16, in
  from MapSyncer.components.download import download_user_images, check_sequence_status, progress
  File "C:\Users\storm\MapSyncer\MapSyncer\components\download.py", line 23, in
  from parsers.exif.exif import ExifParser
  File "C:\Users\storm\MapSyncer\MapSyncer\components\parsers\exif\exif.py", line 9, in
  from exifread.classes import IfdTag
  ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'exifread.classes'

Extra information (can contain screen shots)

[chrisdebian]

Hi,

This is a known breaking change in exifread 3.x — pinning the version or updating the type annotations will fix it.

The import from exifread.classes import IfdTag fails because the classes module was removed in exifread 3.0. Since requirements.txt has no version pin on ExifRead, a fresh install picks up 3.x and breaks immediately.

IfdTag is used only as a type annotation in exif.py (e.g. Dict[str, IfdTag]), so there is no runtime impact — the fix is purely in how the type is referenced. Two options:

Option A — pin the dependency (one-line change in requirements.txt):

ExifRead<3.0

Option B — drop the internal import (works with any exifread version):
In exif.py, remove line 9 (from exifread.classes import IfdTag) and replace all Dict[str, IfdTag] annotations with Dict[str, Any] — Any is already imported on line 4.

Option B is cleaner long-term since it removes a dependency on an internal exifread class that could move again in a future release.

Thanks, Chris

[stormsnsnow]

Hi,

This is a known breaking change in exifread 3.x — pinning the version or updating the type annotations will fix it.

The import from exifread.classes import IfdTag fails because the classes module was removed in exifread 3.0. Since requirements.txt has no version pin on ExifRead, a fresh install picks up 3.x and breaks immediately.

IfdTag is used only as a type annotation in exif.py (e.g. Dict[str, IfdTag]), so there is no runtime impact — the fix is purely in how the type is referenced. Two options:

Option A — pin the dependency (one-line change in requirements.txt):

ExifRead<3.0

Option B — drop the internal import (works with any exifread version): In exif.py, remove line 9 (from exifread.classes import IfdTag) and replace all Dict[str, IfdTag] annotations with Dict[str, Any] — Any is already imported on line 4.

Option B is cleaner long-term since it removes a dependency on an internal exifread class that could move again in a future release.

Thanks, Chris

Option B works! Thank you so much.