Spyder failed to start because no Qt platform plugin could be initialized.

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

Anaconda Navigator and Spyder fail to start. I’ve uninstalled and reinstalled as well as updating conda and all associated plugins but still encounter the issue.

What steps reproduce the problem?

1. Download Anaconda
2. Open Anaconda Navigator

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

The program should start

Paste Traceback/Error Below (if applicable)

qt.qpa.plugin: Could not load the Qt platform plugin "windows" in "" even though it was found.
This application failed to start because no Qt platform plugin could be initialized. Reinstalling the application may fix this problem.

Available platform plugins are: direct2d, minimal, offscreen, windows.

Versions

• Spyder version: 4.1.4
• Python version: 3.8.5
• Qt version: 5.9.7
• PyQt version: 5.9.2
• Operating System name/version: Windows 10

Dependencies

PASTE DEPENDENCIES HERE

[corymasterman]

So I found the root of the problem. I did not have the most current version of Microsoft Visual C++ installed on my machine, the latest version I had was from 2013. Once I downloaded the most current version of Microsoft Visual C++, I was able to reinstall and everything seems to be functioning normally.

[corymasterman]

Yes, conda is recognized in the terminal. I think the problem is coming from the pyqt package. I am unable to install it and the pyqt package is what contains pyside which is the main error that I get when trying to open anaconda-navigator.

I get this error when trying to do conda install pyqt

CondaError: Cannot link a source that does not exist. C:\Users\masterm\AppData\Local\Continuum\Anaconda3\Scripts\conda.exe
Running `conda clean --packages` may resolve your problem.