googletrans stopped working with error 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'group'

Question

I was trying googletrans and it was working quite well. Since this morning I started getting below error. I went through multiple posts from stackoverflow and other sites and found probably my ip is banned to use the service for sometime. I tried using multiple service provider internet that has different ip and stil facing the same issue ? I also tried to use googletrans on different laptops , still same issue ..Is googletrans package broken or something google did at their end ?

>>> from googletrans import Translator
>>> translator = Translator()
>>> translator.translate('안녕하세요.')
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<pyshell#2>", line 1, in <module>
    translator.translate('안녕하세요.')
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.6/lib/python3.6/site-packages/googletrans/client.py", line 172, in translate
    data = self._translate(text, dest, src)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.6/lib/python3.6/site-packages/googletrans/client.py", line 75, in _translate
    token = self.token_acquirer.do(text)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.6/lib/python3.6/site-packages/googletrans/gtoken.py", line 180, in do
    self._update()
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.6/lib/python3.6/site-packages/googletrans/gtoken.py", line 59, in _update
    code = unicode(self.RE_TKK.search(r.text).group(1)).replace('var ', '')
AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'group'

Solution 1

Update 01/12/2020: This issue re-emerged lately, (apparently) caused once again by some changes on the Google translation API.

A solution is being discussed (again) in this Github issue. Although there is not a definitive solution yet a Pull Request seem to be solving the problem: https://github.com/ssut/py-googletrans/pull/237.

While we wait for it to be approved it can be installed like this:

$ pip uninstall googletrans
$ git clone https://github.com/alainrouillon/py-googletrans.git
$ cd ./py-googletrans
$ git checkout origin/feature/enhance-use-of-direct-api
$ python setup.py install

Original Answer:

Apparently it's a recent and widespread problem on Google's side. Quoting various Github discussions, it happens when Google sends you directly the raw token.

It's being discussed right now and there is already a pull request to fix it, so it should be resolved in the next few days.

For reference, see:

https://github.com/ssut/py-googletrans/issues/48 <-- exact same problem reported on the Github repo https://github.com/pndurette/gTTS/issues/60 <-- seemingly same problem on a text-to-speech library https://github.com/ssut/py-googletrans/pull/78 <-- pull request to fix the issue

To apply this patch (without waiting for the pull request to be accepted) simply install the library from the forked repo https://github.com/BoseCorp/py-googletrans.git (uninstall the official library first):

$ pip uninstall googletrans
$ git clone https://github.com/BoseCorp/py-googletrans.git
$ cd ./py-googletrans
$ python setup.py install

You can clone it anywhere on your system and install it globally or while inside a virtualenv.

Solution 2

Update 06.12.20: A new 'official' alpha version of googletrans with a fix was released

Install the alpha version like this:

pip install googletrans==3.1.0a0

Translation example:

translator = Translator()
translation = translator.translate("Der Himmel ist blau und ich mag Bananen", dest='en')
print(translation.text)
#output: 'The sky is blue and I like bananas'

In case it does not work, try to specify the service url like this:

from googletrans import Translator
translator = Translator(service_urls=['translate.googleapis.com'])
translator.translate("Der Himmel ist blau und ich mag Bananen", dest='en')

See the discussion here for details and updates: https://github.com/ssut/py-googletrans/pull/237

Update 10.12.20: Another fix was released

As pointed out by @DesiKeki and @Ahmed Breem, there is another fix which seems to work for several people:

pip install googletrans==4.0.0-rc1

Github discussion here: https://github.com/ssut/py-googletrans/issues/234#issuecomment-742460612

In case the fixes above don't work for you

If the above doesn't work for you, google_trans_new seems to be a good alternative that works for some people. It's unclear why the fix above works for some and doesn't for others. See details on installation and usage here: https://github.com/lushan88a/google_trans_new

#pip install google_trans_new
from google_trans_new import google_translator  
translator = google_translator()  
translate_text = translator.translate('สวัสดีจีน',lang_tgt='en')  
print(translate_text)
#output: Hello china

Solution 3

Try google_trans_new. It solved the problem for me https://github.com/lushan88a/google_trans_new

pip install google_trans_new

from google_trans_new import google_translator  
translator = google_translator()  
translate_text = translator.translate('Hola mundo!', lang_src='es', lang_tgt='en')  
print(translate_text)
-> Hello world!

Solution 4

Update 10.12.20: New Alpha Version Release (Stable Release Candidate) is released: 4.0.0-rc1

It can be installed as follows:

pip install googletrans==4.0.0-rc1

Usage:

translation = translator.translate('이 문장은 한글로 쓰여졌습니다.', dest='en')
print(translation.text)
>>This sentence is written in Korean.
detected_lang = translator.detect('mein english me hindi likh raha hoon')
print(detected_lang)
>>Detected(lang=hi, confidence=None)
detected_lang = translator.detect('이 문장은 한글로 쓰여졌습니다.')
print(detected_lang)
>>Detected(lang=ko, confidence=None)

Solution 5

Updated Answer as of 2021 Sept

pip uninstall googletrans==4.0.0-rc1
pip install googletrans==3.1.0a0

The 3.1.0a0 version works with bulk translation too!

View more solutions

Comments

[steveJ]

Thanks!In which location/file I have to put the code from github.com/ssut/py-googletrans/pull/78 for temporary fix ?

[Maldus]

I'd say something went wrong while uninstalling the official library, with the fix installed it worked for me. Are you familiar with virtualenv? can you try creating a clean virtual environment, installing the pull request package and then running the example again? Also, check if you are actually able to use google translate from its web page

[steveJ]

Yes from webpage I am able to use it. Let me clean it completely

[steveJ]

Its working after proper cleanup. Do you know when the new version will get released.. I looked to the pypi and it seems in next 2 days ?

[Maldus]

No idea, sorry. I had this problem just today and found out about the fix alongside your question

[Raj Adroit]

On your copy of code now facing this issue: ValueError: No JSON object could be decoded

[Maldus]

It's not my copy, I didn't create the pull request. The ValueError is discussed as well in github.com/ssut/py-googletrans/pull/78 , and it appears to be unrelated to the fix. It seems the problem is google blocking your IP when requesting too many translations. Does it happen immediatly or after many requests?

[gashu]

My IP is also getting blocked after using the above pull request, although it resolved the "None Type" issue. It happens after 250 requests or something, I have even tried on a different server, the IP is getting blocked after few requests. Earlier I could make thousands of requests and my IP never got blocked. The new pull request has messed up something, any idea?

[Maldus]

I don't think it's the pull request's direct fault. It seems more likely that Google updated its policies (and API) in a way that caused first the NoneType error and then the IP block. I am not really sure though, I just need a few requests per day. Someone suggested to insert some delay between each request.

[rgargente]

The other solution didn't work for me but this one did! Thanks!

[shahar_m]

Need to restart the kernel when working on jupyter. Other than that, works great.

[mikey]

Probably just need to reload, in Py3, e.g., import importlib; import googletrans; importlib.reload(googletrans)

[user2259664]

Still doesn't work for me: ~~~import googletrans as gt translator = gt.Translator() translation = translator.translate('Hello') print(translation.text)~~~ ---> 66 code = unicode(self.RE_TKK.search(r.text).group(1)).replace('var ', '') 67 # unescape special ascii characters such like a \x3d(=) 68 if PY3: # pragma: no cover AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'group'

[Ice Bear]

Hello! Any updates from this? This answer did not work for me :(

[Maldus]

It is an old answer to an old problem that only recently re-emerged. There is a new discussion to fix the issue today and I have updated the answer to mention that,

[Moritz]

mh.. I uninstalled and gitcloned exactly as described above, but I'm still getting "AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'group'"

[Moritz]

For some reasons it only works when I add the service URL argument like this: translator = Translator(service_urls=['translate.googleapis.com'])

[Danil Kononyhin]

when I use Moritz's hack with service_urls, there is no error, but no translation is given. It returns original text.

[Danil Kononyhin]

for me worked installing alpha version: pip install googletrans==3.1.0a0

[ludgo]

For me this works also without specifying url. Translating between en and es though.

[Moritz]

you are right, now it's working for me too without specifying the service URL. I suppose there was another fix

[ludgo]

@Moritz update, it suddenly stopped working for me, returning original word instead of spanish translation. Had to switch to google_trans_new

[Moritz]

mh.. weird, it still works for me (just retried it for en-es, es-en, de-en, de-fr etc). is it the same "NoneType object" problem, or a different error message? (Are you sure it's not linked to changes in your python environment or something else?)

[Ice Bear]

@Moritz I had the same issue as @ludgo. The package worked thoo like for 3 days then after that it just returns the same text. I tried putting the service_urls but it gives the famous error which is about the token and still same text. I'm not sure why this happen tho but I posted an issue on the github. (link)[github.com/ssut/py-googletrans/issues/254]

[Ice Bear]

I like this package tho cause it came from the previous one where everyone was experiencing about the token error. But I think I might have to use google_trans_new if this might take too long... Would you happen guys to know if google_trans_new is also derived from this package or the other one? which is google_trans? I think the developer who made it is different.

[Moritz]

@StackOffended: the contributors py-googletrans and google_trans_new are not the same people according to github. Another friend of mine installed the py-googletrans alpha version described above and it worked for them. (I just tried it again, it it still works for me). the best approach is probably to try the alpha version and if it doesn't work for you, switch to google_trans_new. No idea where the issue comes from, unfortunately :/

[Ice Bear]

Okay Thanks! :D but I was just wondering google_trans_new , py-googletrans and the alpha version all just use the same Google Translate API right? I mean why is the alpha version returning the same text thoo while the other don't :/ and when I tried google_trans_new everything's fine. Anyways I think I might go to google_trans_new. :D

[Ice Bear]

I'm getting errors now if I translate a lot of text data. See here (github.com/ssut/py-googletrans/issues/261)[linkerror]

[hafiz031]

Any way to get the confidence of translation from here? I didn't find any. googletrans is capable of providing confidence.

[Hatt]

FWIW - I used the googletrans from the original answer - worked fine. Applied it to a 500 row DF and it stopped working after max tries. Tried google_trans_new on the same DF and it worked fine. Sounds shaky either way.

[Thiago]

This solution did not work for me. Only installing google_trans_new solved my problem.

[Koustav Chanda]

@Thiago Thanks google_trans_new solved my problem of translating bn to en.

[GlennS]

Confirming that this method solved the issue for me. Thanks Abdulkarim Malkadi!

[Christian Kammerer]

@Moritz I love you

[Poikilos]

It works for me July 29, 2021 in Python 3.7.3 on Debian 10. Thanks!

[brygid]

for me it produced this eror: AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'group' any solutions? thanks

[Antoine]

This saved me tons of time many thanks! +1

[Harrish Selvarajah]

this solution works!!

[Harrish Selvarajah]

Doesn't work for bulk translation :(

[Bahman Rouhani]

In case anyone else is looking for a working solution, as of Dec 2021 was the best one.

[Counter10000]

It works for me Feb 14, 2022 in Python 3.8.10 on Linux. Thanks!

[Omar]

As of May 2022, this solution worked for me.

[Purushottam]

As of 22-May-2022, this is working fantastically