Python's MySQLdb can’t find libmysqlclient.dylib with Homebrewed MySQL

I also encountered this problem. I uninstalled the MySQL-python, and then installed it.

pip uninstall MySQL-python
pip install MySQL-python

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Update (based on comments)

In some cases, you may need to perform the second (install) step in the following manner:

pip install --no-binary MySQL-python MySQL-python

The no-binary option is so that pip builds it fresh and links to the correct library:

--no-binary <format_control>

Do not use binary packages. Can be supplied multiple times, and each time adds to the existing value. Accepts either :all: to disable all binary packages, :none: to empty the set, or one or more package names with commas between them. Note that some packages are tricky to compile and may fail to install when this option is used on them.

NB: Note, that MySQL-python needs to be mentioned twice. As mentioned above, the first occurrence is the name of the package to apply the no-binary option to, the second specifies the package to install.

You need to use dev version of mysqlclient:

pip install git+https://github.com/PyMySQL/mysqlclient-python.git@master

Before I had the lastest PyPI version (1.3.7) on Python 3.4 and it was searching for libmysqlclient.18.dylib (from MySQL 5.6) whereas I had only libmysqlclient.20.dylib(from MySQL 5.7).

If you use Python 3, MySQL-python is not an option (and mysqlclient is its newer version).

If encountered a problem with lacking of libmysqlclient.18.dylib:

1. download mysql 5.6 from official link: https://dev.mysql.com/downloads/mysql/

2. install it

3. in terminal - mdfind libmysqlclient | grep .18.

4. copy the output

5. sudo ln -s [the output from previous command] /usr/local/lib/libmysqlclient.18.dylib