IDLE freezing/unresponsive when saving new file

Question

I am brand new to python and programming more generally so 1) I'm an ignorant noob and I apologize and 2) I'm really just using IDLE for very basic learning. I'm running python 3.7.6 on Mac OS Catalina 10.15.3

My problem is bizarre: When I go to save a new .py file, IDLE freezes and becomes unresponsive. I'll hit CMD+S on a new/'Untitled.py' file, the save folder will pop open, and I can name the new file/navigate folders, but once I hit "Save", the program freezes with the save folder still open, except now the Save/Cancel buttons are greyed out and the entire application becomes unresponsive. My only recourse is to Force Quit and relaunch IDLE, and the new file I was trying to save never saved. You can imagine how fun this is.

What's weird is it doesn't happen every time. If I open IDLE, open a new file and very quickly/immediately save (which I try to do by default), then the file will save. Once I've saved it once, I have no problems saving the existing file as I work on it. That is, the issue is only with the creation/save of new files. I'm also not sure why sometimes I can Save a new file and other times (especially if IDLE has been open for a while) it crashes.

To be clear: I can open files, save existing files, and run programs I've written without incident. I am not getting any warnings, crash notifications, or notices of any kind that even acknowledge that IDLE is acting up.

I had 3.8, which I replaced for 3.7.6 thinking a more stable version might solve my problems, but no dice. I only have python 3.7.6 on my computer: No python 2, nothing else. I have no idea what's going on but this is super frustrating and I just want to be able to learn Python without these weird roadblocks.

Please help!

Answer 1

I've also had this problem, and what I did was change the location of where the file would save. I suggest trying this to help.