patch_sklearn() ImportError: DLL load failed while importing _daal4py: The specified module could not be found.

[quangtuan202]

I have installed the latest version by : pip install scikit-learn-intelex
When I run :

from sklearnex import patch_sklearn
patch_sklearn()

The following error occurred, it said that daal4py was not found. As far as I know, daal4py is deprecated and is not required for the latest scikit-learn-intelex.

from sklearnex import patch_sklearn

File "C:\Users\tuandq\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python312\Lib\site-packages\sklearnex_init_.py", line 20, in
from . import utils
File "C:\Users\tuandq\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python312\Lib\site-packages\sklearnex\utils_init_.py", line 17, in
from .validation import assert_all_finite
File "C:\Users\tuandq\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python312\Lib\site-packages\sklearnex\utils\validation.py", line 25, in
from daal4py.sklearn.utils import daal_check_version, sklearn_check_version
File "C:\Users\tuandq\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python312\Lib\site-packages\daal4py_init.py", line 54, in
from daal4py._daal4py import *
ImportError: DLL load failed while importing _daal4py: The specified module could not be found.

I also tried to install daal4py with the latest version found on Pypi which is "daal4py-2024.7.0-py312-none-win_amd64.whl" but it requires the older version of daal:

ERROR: Could not find a version that satisfies the requirement daal==2024.7.0 (from daal4py) (from versions: none)
ERROR: No matching distribution found for daal==2024.7.0

Checking packages installed:

pip show scikit-learn-intelex

Name: scikit-learn-intelex
Version: 2025.10.0
Summary: Intel® Extension for Scikit-learn is a seamless way to speed up your Scikit-learn application.
Home-page: https://github.com/intel/scikit-learn-intelex
Author: Intel Corporation
Author-email: onedal.maintainers@intel.com
License: Apache-2.0
Location: C:\Users\tuandq\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python312\Lib\site-packages
Requires: daal, numpy, scikit-learn
Required-by:

pip show daal

Name: daal
Version: 2025.10.0
Summary: Intel® oneAPI Data Analytics Library
Home-page: https://github.com/uxlfoundation/oneDAL
Author: Intel Corporation
Author-email: scripting@intel.com
License: Intel Simplified Software License
Location: C:\Users\tuandq\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python312\Lib\site-packages
Requires: tbb
Required-by: scikit-learn-intelex

[david-cortes-intel]

Thanks for the bug report. Please do not try to install daal4py as it was deprecated as a package - instead, it is supposed to be a module within package scikit-learn-intelex.

Could you verify if this path exists and has .pyd files with py312 in the name?

C:\Users\tuandq\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python312\Lib\site-packages\daal4py

Also to verify:

• Is there perhaps some system-wide install of oneAPI products? (e.g. what you download from this link: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/developer/tools/oneapi/base-toolkit.html)
• Did you install everything through pip and under the same user?
• Did you do something that might trigger incompatibilities with existing installs? E.g. installing these packages under one windows version and then updating to another windows version (like windows 10 -> windows 11), or updating python versions without reinstalling all packages, or similar.

And just in case: it looks like you have a Python install from the regular .exe provided by the Python foundation or similar - you could also try miniforge as an alternative, which is less likely to stumble into problems like this:
https://github.com/conda-forge/miniforge

[david-cortes-intel]

Also to make sure, if you used an installer from python.org, when installing, did you tick the option for 'Add python.exe to PATH'? If not, how are you launching pip/python?

[david-cortes-intel]

Also another question: did you install the package from PyPI or from Intel's Python index?