Can no Longer open Spyder IDE for Python Programming

Question

I installed Python 3.4 on my Windows 7 laptop several months ago as part of Anaconda (https://www.continuum.io/downloads). My installation included the Spyder IDE, and I have successfully been using Spyder for Python programming.

However, since yesterday, I have been unable to open Spyder. I typically open Spyder via the Start Menu, but now, when I try to click on the Spyder icon in the Start Menu, I get no response. I then tried to go directly to the spyder.exe file in the Scripts folder in the directory where Anaconda is installed. When I clicked on this the first time, the following message flashed quickly and then disappeared:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Users\Aniket\Anaconda3\Scripts\spyder-script.py". line 2, in <module>
    start_app.main()
  File "C:\Users\Aniket\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\spyderlib\start_app.py", line 114, in main
    from spyderlib import spyder
  File "C:\Users\Aniket\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\spyderlib\spyder.py", line 100 in <module>
  File "C:\Users\Aniket\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\spyderlib\qt\QtSvg.py", line 10 in <module>
    from PyQt4.QtSvg import * # analysis:ignore
ImportError:DLL load failed: The specified module could not be found

I double-clicked on Spyder.exe a second time, and this time, received the following message:

kfile.py", line 146 in lock
    symlinke(str(os.getpid()), self.name)
  File "C:\Users\Aniket\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\spyderlib\utils\external\lockfile.py", line 87, in symlink
    os.rmdir(newlinkname)
OSError: [WinError 145] The directory is not empty: 'C:\\Users\\Aniket\\.spyder2-py3\\spyder.lock.1459432906109.newlink'

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Users\Aniket\Anaconda3\Scripts\spyder-script.py". line 2, in <module>
    start_app.main()
  File "C:\Users\Aniket\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\spyderlib\start_app.py", line 106, in main
    from spyderlib import spyder
  File "C:\Users\Aniket\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\spyderlib\spyder.py", line 100 in <module>
  File "C:\Users\Aniket\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\spyderlib\qt\QtSvg.py", line 10 in <module>
    from PyQt4.QtSvg import * # analysis:ignore
ImportError:DLL load failed: The specified module could not be found

Both of these messages flashed very quickly and then disappeared - I captured them by quickly pressing Print Screen when they appeared. It's not evident to me what the error messages imply, nor what would have caused this. It's possible that I closed Spyder while some function was running, or that Spyder crashed and caused some persistent error. Does anyone know how I can fix this?

Answer 1

I had a similar problem of Spyder 2 not starting. My installation is part of Anaconda, on Win7 64-bit OS. I tried all the solutions outlined here and here, but they did not work for me. From the command line, I got the following error(s) when trying to reset spyder:

U:\>python -c "from spyderlib.spyder import main; main()" --reset
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Temp\pApps\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\spyderlib\qt\__init__.py", line 48, in <module> from PySide import __version__  # analysis:ignore
ImportError: No module named 'PySide'

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Temp\pApps\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\spyderlib\requirements.py", line 40, in check_qt from spyderlib import qt File "C:\Temp\pApps\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\spyderlib\qt\__init__.py", line 50, in <module>
    raise ImportError("Spyder requires PySide or PyQt to be installed")
ImportError: Spyder requires PySide or PyQt to be installed

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
  File "C:\Temp\pApps\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\spyderlib\spyder.py", line 48, in <module> requirements.check_qt()
  File "C:\Temp\pApps\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\spyderlib\requirements.py", line 50, in check_qt % (qt_infos['pyqt']+qt_infos['pyside']))
  File "C:\Temp\pApps\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\spyderlib\requirements.py", line 25, in show_warning
    raise RuntimeError(message)
RuntimeError: Please check Spyder installation requirements:
PyQt4 4.6+ (or PySide 1.2.0+) is required.

What surprised me was that spyder worked fine till yesterday, and I just did a full update yesterday as follows:

conda update --all

So I again updated spyder today with the following:

conda update spyder

And the following package plan was presented to me:

The following packages will be UPDATED:

        spyder:     2.3.7-py35_3      None://None/<unknown> --> 2.3.8-py35_1
        spyder-app: 2.3.7-py35_0                            --> 2.3.8-py35_0

    The following packages will be DOWNGRADED due to dependency conflicts:

        matplotlib: 1.5.3-np111py35_1                       --> 1.5.1-np111py35_0
        pyqt:       5.6.0-py35_0                            --> 4.11.4-py35_7
        qt:         5.6.0-vc14_0                            [vc14] --> 4.8.7-vc14_9
         [vc14]
        qtconsole:  4.2.1-py35_2                            --> 4.2.1-py35_0

After the update, spyder works fine now. In essence, my problem was due to dependency conflicts.

Answer 2

Had the same exact problem as you a few days ago and reinstalling won't work so I went to:

C:\Users\'YourName'\\.spyder2-py3

delete every spyder, lock file/folder in it and relaunch.