Spyder crashes when the IPython console is disabled

Issue Report Checklist

• Searched the issues page for similar reports
• Read the relevant sections of the Spyder Troubleshooting Guide and followed its advice
• Reproduced the issue after updating with conda update spyder (or pip, if not using Anaconda)
• Could not reproduce inside jupyter qtconsole (if console-related)
• Tried basic troubleshooting (if a bug/error)
  • Restarted Spyder
  • Reset preferences with spyder --reset
  • Reinstalled the latest version of Anaconda
  • Tried the other applicable steps from the Troubleshooting Guide
• Completed the Problem Description, Steps to Reproduce and Version sections below

Problem Description

I had to restart my desktop environment through a reboot. Spyder was running at that time with one file not saved.

After the restart, I started Spyder from the start menu. It showed me the file recovery dialog, I agreed to the recovery and then Spyder exited. When I tried it again, the recovery dialog was not displayed. (Where would I now find the recovered file?), but Spyder still did not start.

I then started Spyder from the terminal with spyder --debug-info verbose --debug-output file. The spyder-debug.log (with the traceback spliced in) is attached.

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

Please see spyder-debug.log

Paste Traceback/Error Below (if applicable)

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.8/dist-packages/spyder/api/widgets/menus.py", line 225, in _render
    section, before_section = next(iter_sections)
StopIteration

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/bin/spyder", line 8, in <module>
    sys.exit(main())
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.8/dist-packages/spyder/app/start.py", line 252, in main
    mainwindow.main(options, args)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.8/dist-packages/spyder/app/mainwindow.py", line 1956, in main
    mainwindow = create_window(MainWindow, app, splash, options, args)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.8/dist-packages/spyder/app/utils.py", line 300, in create_window
    main.post_visible_setup()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.8/dist-packages/spyder/app/mainwindow.py", line 1057, in post_visible_setup
    plugin.on_mainwindow_visible()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.8/dist-packages/spyder/plugins/mainmenu/plugin.py", line 86, in on_mainwindow_visible
    menu._render()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.8/dist-packages/spyder/api/widgets/menus.py", line 246, in _render
    raise SpyderAPIError(
spyder.api.exceptions.SpyderAPIError: You're trying to introduce some sections before others that don't have any actions. This is the list of (section, before_section) that's failing to be added:

[('documentation_section', 'support_section'), ('support_section', 'external_documentation_section')]

Versions

• Spyder version: 5.3.3
• Python version: 3.8.10
• Qt version: 5.15.2 (?)
• PyQt version: 5.15.7
• Operating System name/version: Linux Mint 20.3

Dependencies

N/A.

[sphh]

🙇

[ccordoba12]

Yeah, I tested this locally and you’re right, Spyder crashes with this error if the IPython console is disabled.