MusicBrainz won't connect (SSL: CERTIFICATE_VERIFY_FAILED)

beets won’t connect to MusicBrainz. discogs, fetchart, other things connect, but not this.

Problem

Running this command in verbose (-vv) mode:

beet -vv import /Volumes/Expansion-1/Media/Audio/

Led to this problem:

Searching for MusicBrainz releases with: {'release': '14番目の月', 'arid': '89ad4ac3-39f7-470e-963a-56509c546377', 'tracks': '10'}
Sending event: import_task_created
ignoring b'.DS_Store' due to ignore rule b'.*'
Sending event: import_task_created
ignoring b'.DS_Store' due to ignore rule b'.*'
Sending event: import_task_created
ignoring b'.DS_Store' due to ignore rule b'.*'
Sending event: import_task_created
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/urllib/request.py", line 1317, in do_open
    encode_chunked=req.has_header('Transfer-encoding'))
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/http/client.py", line 1229, in request
    self._send_request(method, url, body, headers, encode_chunked)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/http/client.py", line 1275, in _send_request
    self.endheaders(body, encode_chunked=encode_chunked)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/http/client.py", line 1224, in endheaders
    self._send_output(message_body, encode_chunked=encode_chunked)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/http/client.py", line 1016, in _send_output
    self.send(msg)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/http/client.py", line 956, in send
    self.connect()
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/http/client.py", line 1392, in connect
    server_hostname=server_hostname)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/ssl.py", line 412, in wrap_socket
    session=session
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/ssl.py", line 853, in _create
    self.do_handshake()
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/ssl.py", line 1117, in do_handshake
    self._sslobj.do_handshake()
ssl.SSLCertVerificationError: [SSL: CERTIFICATE_VERIFY_FAILED] certificate verify failed: unable to get local issuer certificate (_ssl.c:1056)

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/site-packages/musicbrainzngs/musicbrainz.py", line 497, in _safe_read
    f = opener.open(req)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/urllib/request.py", line 525, in open
    response = self._open(req, data)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/urllib/request.py", line 543, in _open
    '_open', req)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/urllib/request.py", line 503, in _call_chain
    result = func(*args)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/urllib/request.py", line 1360, in https_open
    context=self._context, check_hostname=self._check_hostname)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/urllib/request.py", line 1319, in do_open
    raise URLError(err)
urllib.error.URLError: <urlopen error [SSL: CERTIFICATE_VERIFY_FAILED] certificate verify failed: unable to get local issuer certificate (_ssl.c:1056)>

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/site-packages/beets/autotag/mb.py", line 508, in match_album
    limit=config['musicbrainz']['searchlimit'].get(int), **criteria)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/site-packages/musicbrainzngs/musicbrainz.py", line 978, in search_releases
    return _do_mb_search('release', query, fields, limit, offset, strict)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/site-packages/musicbrainzngs/musicbrainz.py", line 782, in _do_mb_search
    return _do_mb_query(entity, '', [], params)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/site-packages/musicbrainzngs/musicbrainz.py", line 728, in _do_mb_query
    return _mb_request(path, 'GET', auth_required, args=args)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/site-packages/musicbrainzngs/musicbrainz.py", line 417, in __call__
    return self.fun(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/site-packages/musicbrainzngs/musicbrainz.py", line 690, in _mb_request
    resp = _safe_read(opener, req, body)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/site-packages/musicbrainzngs/musicbrainz.py", line 525, in _safe_read
    raise NetworkError(cause=exc)
musicbrainzngs.musicbrainz.NetworkError: caused by: <urlopen error [SSL: CERTIFICATE_VERIFY_FAILED] certificate verify failed: unable to get local issuer certificate (_ssl.c:1056)>

Error: MusicBrainz not reachable in release search with query {'release': '14番目の月', 'arid': '89ad4ac3-39f7-470e-963a-56509c546377', 'tracks': '10'}

Setup

• OS: macOS High Sierra
• Python version: 2.7.16 - I’m not sure, it is hell to keep track of this as a non-programmer. I know I updated to 3 at some point, but if I write python it says Python 2.7.16 (default, Jan 26 2020, 23:50:38) . Not sure what beet is using.
• beets version: 1.5.0

My configuration (output of beet config) is:

directory: /Volumes/Expansion-1/Media/Audio/

plugins: convert discogs duplicates fetchart embedart lyrics missing zero

autotag: yes

art_filename: cover

clutter: .pdf .bmp .png .jpg .jpef .tif .gif .sfv .nfo .m3u .log .DS_Store Thumbs.DB Thumbs.db

original_date: yes

languages: en

va_name: Various

ignored_media: .vob .mp4 .mkv .avi .ts .pdf .cbz .cbr

import:
    copy: no
    write: yes
    move: yes

paths:
    default: $albumartist/$album%aunique{albumartist album, tracktotal year label,()}/$track. $title
    comp: Various/$album%aunique{albumartist album, tracktotal year label,()}/$track. $title
    albumartist:various artists: Various/$album%aunique{albumartist album, tracktotal year label,()}/$track. $title
replace:
    '[\\/]': _
    '^\.': _
    '[\x00-\x1f]': _
    '[<>:"\?\*\|]': _
    '\.$': _
    '\s+$': ''
    '^\s+': ''
    '^-': _
convert:
    tmpdir: /Volumes/Expansion-1/Media/Audio/
    auto: yes
    delete_originals: yes
    never_convert_lossy_files: yes
    format: mp3
    mp3:
      command: ffmpeg -i $source -q:a 0 -map_metadata 0 $dest
      extension: mp3
discogs:
    user_token: redacted
duplicates:
    album: yes
    move: /Users/redacted/Downloads/
fetchart:
    auto: yes
    sources: fanarttv itunes amazon coverart albumart google
    fanarttv_key: redacted
    google_API_key: redacted
embedart: 
    auto: yes
    maxwidth: 1000
lyrics:
    auto: yes
    force: yes
    sources: genius musixmatch lyricwiki google
    google_API_key: redacted
    fallback: ''
    import.write: yes
chroma:
    auto: no
zero:
    auto: yes
    update_database: true
    keep_fields:        
        - artist
        - title
        - album
        - year
        - composer
        - albumartist
        - track
        - tracktotal
        - disc
        - disctotal
        - label
        - acoustid_fingerprint
        - acoustid_id
        - albumtype
        - lyrics
        - unsyncedlyrics
        - images
        - rating
        - first played
        - last played
        - play count

https://github.com/beetbox/beets/issues/3052#issuecomment-430325851 didn’t work. It was already installed, and the error persists.

[wisp3rwind]

I lack the knowledge to comment on the SSL problem directly; but looking at the log ("/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/site-packages/beets/autotag/mb.py"), you’re running beets on Python 3.7, not 2.7. So you’d need to apply any fix from the linked thread to Python 3.7, too.

[wisp3rwind]

Moving this to Discussions, as this is most likely not a bug with beets.