I am happy now because I have been having exactly the same issue with my pyspark and I found "the solution". In my case, I am running on Windows 10. After many searches via Google, I found the correct way of setting the required environment variables: PYTHONPATH=$SPARK_HOME$\python;$SPARK_HOME$\python\lib\py4j-<version>-src.zip The version of Py4J source package changes between the Spark versions, thus, check what you have in your Spark and change the placeholder accordingly. For a complete reference to the process look at this site: how to install spark locally

Answer from user_dhrn on Stack Overflow
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/apachespark › error with pyspark and py4j
r/apachespark on Reddit: Error with PySpark and Py4J
September 5, 2024 -

Hey everyone!

I recently started working with Apache Spark, and its PySpark implementation in a professional environment, thus I am by no means an expert, and I am facing an error with Py4J.

In more details, I have installed Apache Spark, and already set up the SPARK_HOME, HADOOP_HOME, JAVA_HOME environment variables. As I want to run PySpark without using pip install pyspark, I have set up a PYTHONPATH environment variable, with values pointing to the python folder of Apache Spark and inside the py4j.zip.
My issue is that when I create a dataframe from scratch and use the command df.show() I get the Error

*"*Py4JJavaError: An error occurred while calling o143.showString. : org.apache.spark.SparkException: Job aborted due to stage failure: Task 0 in stage 4.0 failed 1 times, most recent failure: Lost task 0.0 in stage 4.0 (TID 4) (xxx-yyyy.mshome.net executor driver): org.apache.spark.SparkException: Python worker failed to connect back".

However, the command works as it should when the dataframe is created, for example, by reading a csv file. Other commands that I have also tried, works as they should.

The version of the programs that I use are:
Python 3.11.9 (always using venv, so Python is not in path)
Java 11
Apache Spark 3.5.1 (and Hadoop 3.3.6 for the win.utls file and hadoop.dll)
Visual Studio Code
Windows 11

I have tried other version of Python (3.11.8, 3.12.4) and Apache Spark (3.5.2), with the same response

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

The following two pictures just show an example of the issue that I am facing.

----------- UPDATED SOLUTION -----------

In the end, also thanks to the suggestions in the comments, I figured out a way to make PySpark work with the following implementation. After running this code in a cell, PySpark is recognized as it should and the code runs without issues even for the manually created dataframe, Hopefully, it can also be helpful to others!

# Import the necessary libraries
import os, sys

# Add the necessary environment variables

os.environ["PYSPARK_PYTHON"] = sys.executable
os.environ["spark_python"] = os.getenv('SPARK_HOME') + "\\python"
os.environ["py4j"] = os.getenv('SPARK_HOME') + "\\python\lib\py4j-0.10.9.7-src.zip"

# Retrieve the values from the environment variables
spark_python_path = os.environ["spark_python"]
py4j_zip_path = os.environ["py4j"]

# Add the paths to sys.path
for path in [spark_python_path, py4j_zip_path]:
    if path not in sys.path:
        sys.path.append(path)

# Verify that the paths have been added to sys.path
print("sys.path:", sys.path)
Discussions

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Medium
mhaske-padmajeet.medium.com › troubleshooting-py4jjavaerror-and-syntaxerror-in-pyspark-applications-f0f2f96a344f
Troubleshooting Py4JJavaError and SyntaxError in PySpark Applications | by Padmajeet Mhaske | Medium
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Apache
spark.apache.org › docs › latest › api › python › development › debugging.html
Debugging PySpark — PySpark 4.1.1 documentation
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GitHub
github.com › jupyterlab › jupyterlab › issues › 17484
Error (Py4JJavaError) running pyspark notebook in VSC · Issue #17484 · jupyterlab/jupyterlab
April 17, 2025 - When I execute the last line I get an error, which is the following error: --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Py4JJavaError Traceback (most recent call last) Cell In[10], line 1 ----> 1 df.filter(col('doc_entry')==8253).orderBy(col('line_num'),ascending=True).show(30,False) File c:\ProgramData\miniforge3\Lib\site-packages\pyspark\sql\dataframe.py:947, in DataFrame.show(self, n, truncate, vertical) 887 def show(self, n: int = 20, truncate: Union[bool, int] = True, vertical: bool = False) -> None: 888 """Prints the first ``n`` rows to the console.
Author   fcarub
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Dataiku Community
community.dataiku.com › questions & discussions › general
Pyspark python issue:Py4JJavaError: An error occurred while calling o59.classForName. — Dataiku Community
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Python.org
discuss.python.org › python help
Getting py4j.protocol.Py4JJavaError when running Spark job (pyspark version 3.5.1 and python version 3.11) - Python Help - Discussions on Python.org
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Orchestra
getorchestra.io › guides › resolving-py4j-protocol-py4jjavaerror-in-pyiceberg-and-pyspark
Resolving py4j.protocol.Py4JJavaError in PyIceberg and PySpark | Orchestra
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Spark By {Examples}
sparkbyexamples.com › home › pyspark › pyspark “importerror: no module named py4j.java_gateway” error
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March 27, 2024 - After Spark installation, you need to set Py4j module to PYTHONPATH environment variable in order to run the PySpark application. Not setting this module to env, you get ImportError: No module named py4j.java_gateway error.
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YouTube
youtube.com › watch
PySpark Error: Py4JJavaError For Python version being incorrect - YouTube
Advance note: Audio was bad because I was traveling. haha_____The error in my case was: PySpark was running python 2.7 from my environment's default library....
Published   October 10, 2018
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GitHub
github.com › py4j › py4j › issues › 262
Py4JNetworkError: An error occurred while trying to connect to the Java server (127.0.0.1:25335) · Issue #262 · py4j/py4j
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Author   poojapurushotham
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GitHub
github.com › JohnSnowLabs › spark-nlp › issues › 13995
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September 19, 2023 - 328 format(target_id, ".", name), value) 329 else: 330 raise Py4JError( 331 "An error occurred while calling {0}{1}{2}. Trace:\n{3}\n". 332 format(target_id, ".", name, value)) Py4JJavaError: An error occurred while calling z:com.johnsnowlabs.nlp.pretrained.PythonResourceDownloader.downloadModel.
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Catwolf
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Medium
medium.com › @yhoso › resolving-weird-spark-errors-f34324943e1c
Solving 5 Mysterious Spark Errors | by yhoztak | Medium
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Apache
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Cloudera Community
community.cloudera.com › t5 › Support-Questions › Error-running-Pyspark-Interpreter-after-Installing-Miniconda › td-p › 218827
Error running Pyspark Interpreter after Installing... - Cloudera Community - 218827
August 18, 2019 - py", line 1062, in __call__ File "/usr/hdp/2.5.3.0-37/spark/python/lib/py4j-0.9-src.zip/py4j/java_gateway. py", line 631, in send_command File "/usr/hdp/2.5.3.0-37/spark/python/lib/py4j-0.9-src.zip/py4j/java_gateway. py", line 624, in send_command File "/usr/hdp/2.5.3.0-37/spark/python/lib/py4j-0.9-src.zip/py4j/java_gateway. py", line 579, in _get_connection File "/usr/hdp/2.5.3.0-37/spark/python/lib/py4j-0.9-src.zip/py4j/java_gateway. py", line 585, in _create_connection File "/usr/hdp/2.5.3.0-37/spark/python/lib/py4j-0.9-src.zip/py4j/java_gateway. py", line 697, in start py4j.protocol.Py4JNetworkError: An error occurred while trying to connect to the Java server >>> import pandas as pd >>> ... Try setting PYSPARK_DRIVER_PYTHON environment variable so that Spark uses Anaconda/Miniconda.
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solveForum
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