Launch Issues with 4.2.1 and macOS

Problem Description

I just installed Spyder 4.1.5 through Anaconda in a new ARM MacBook Pro with Big Sur, I had some problems at the beginning with high latency problems, but I updated QT to v5.12.5 and problems gone.

The point is that Spyder notify me that I could update to 4.2 so I did that, and Spyder never launch again, then I tested to update to v4.2.1 that perfectly launch, so I’m at the point that I have Spyder 4.2.1 and Qt 5.12.5 and everything works.

But, and here is where I need help, all times I launch Spyder I get an Issue Reporter that tells me: “Spyder has encountered an internal problem”, you can se the paste of problem detail below:

  File "/Users/vicentegt/anaconda3/lib/python3.8/site-packages/spyder/plugins/editor/widgets/status.py", line 113, in process_git_data
    branches, branch, files_modified = output
TypeError: cannot unpack non-iterable NoneType object

That happen every time when I launch Spyder, if I close that everything works, but it’s a bit annoying and im worried that some complex task could go wrong. It also open in the script editor a script called “spyder” that I never created or opened:

#!/bin/bash /Users/vicentegt/anaconda3/bin/pythonw

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
import re
import sys

from spyder.app.start import main

if __name__ == '__main__':
    sys.argv[0] = re.sub(r'(-script\.pyw?|\.exe)?$', '', sys.argv[0])
    sys.exit(main())

and when I run ti I get:

Spyder is already running. If you want to open a new instance, please pass to it the --new-instance option

What steps reproduce the problem?

1. Take an Apple Silicon, ARM M1 MacBook Pro with macOS Big Sur
2. Install Anaconda
3. Update Spyder by conda forge channel to v4.2.1
4. Update Qt by conda forge channel to 5.12.5
5. Launch spyder

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?

The expected output is to don’t get and Issue Report window.

Paste Traceback/Error Below (if applicable)

  File "/Users/vicentegt/anaconda3/lib/python3.8/site-packages/spyder/plugins/editor/widgets/status.py", line 113, in process_git_data
    branches, branch, files_modified = output
TypeError: cannot unpack non-iterable NoneType object

Versions

• Spyder version: 4.2.1
• Python version: 3.8.5
• Qt version: 5.12.5
• PyQt version: 5.12.3
• Operating System name/version: macOS Big Sur

Dependencies

# Mandatory:
applaunchservices >=0.1.7       :  0.2.1 (OK)
atomicwrites >=1.2.0            :  1.4.0 (OK)
chardet >=2.0.0                 :  4.0.0 (OK)
cloudpickle >=0.5.0             :  1.6.0 (OK)
diff_match_patch >=20181111     :  20200713 (OK)
intervaltree >=3.0.2            :  3.1.0 (OK)
IPython >=7.6.0                 :  7.19.0 (OK)
jedi =0.17.2                    :  0.17.2 (OK)
jsonschema >=3.2.0              :  3.2.0 (OK)
keyring >=17.0.0                :  21.4.0 (OK)
nbconvert >=4.0                 :  6.0.7 (OK)
numpydoc >=0.6.0                :  1.1.0 (OK)
parso =0.7.0                    :  0.7.0 (OK)
pexpect >=4.4.0                 :  4.8.0 (OK)
pickleshare >=0.4               :  0.7.5 (OK)
psutil >=5.3                    :  5.7.2 (OK)
pygments >=2.0                  :  2.7.3 (OK)
pylint >=1.0                    :  2.6.0 (OK)
pyls >=0.36.2;<1.0.0            :  0.36.2 (OK)
pyls_black >=0.4.6              :  0.4.6 (OK)
pyls_spyder >=0.3.0             :  0.3.0 (OK)
qdarkstyle >=2.8                :  2.8.1 (OK)
qtawesome >=0.5.7               :  1.0.1 (OK)
qtconsole >=5.0.1               :  5.0.1 (OK)
qtpy >=1.5.0                    :  1.9.0 (OK)
rtree >=0.8.3                   :  0.9.4 (OK)
setuptools >=39.0.0             :  51.0.0.post20201207 (OK)
sphinx >=0.6.6                  :  3.4.0 (OK)
spyder_kernels >=1.10.1;<1.11.0 :  1.10.1 (OK)
textdistance >=4.2.0            :  4.2.0 (OK)
three_merge >=0.1.1             :  0.1.1 (OK)
watchdog >=0.10.3               :  0.10.4 (OK)
zmq >=17                        :  20.0.0 (OK)

# Optional:
cython >=0.21                   :  0.29.21 (OK)
matplotlib >=2.0.0              :  3.3.2 (OK)
numpy >=1.7                     :  1.19.2 (OK)
pandas >=1.1.1                  :  1.1.5 (OK)
scipy >=0.17.0                  :  1.5.2 (OK)
sympy >=0.7.3                   :  1.7.1 (OK)

[vivito51]

I’ll write down here the configuration that works for me. Maybe it’s useful for you @robbwh @BastianZim .

As anaconda isn’t still ARM native I downloaded mambaforge (which is ARM compatible). Then I installed standalone spyder from here. Once I have mambaforge and Spyder the way to link them is: Spyder > Preferences > Python Interpreter > Select the following python interpreter: /Users/your_user/mambaforge/bin/python3.9

After that you will have an issue when Spyder open, something about spyder-kernels is missing in your selected python eviroment. Solve that is really easy, just go to Applications Folder on your Mac, find Spyder.app then control+click and show package content, then go to: Contents/Resources/lib/python3.9/ there find “spyder_kernels” folder and copy it to your ~/ (home directory).

Once you have that folder there, just start spyder and it will find by default the kerners that you just set in your home directory. And everything should work perfectly. At least it work for me with MacBook Pro M1 with Big Sur 11.1.

Hope that helps you while we wait for future updates. Happy New Year!

[ccordoba12]

To everyone subscribed to this issue: all problems reported here are fixed now. I included their fixes in a new build of 4.2.1 in conda-forge, so to get them you need to run

conda remove --force spyder
conda install -c conda-forge spyder=4.2.1