Spyder not opening after conda update

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

After updating through condo update --all my spyder is not opening/starting at all.

What steps reproduce the problem?

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

Paste Traceback/Error Below (if applicable)

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:\Users\ASUS\Anaconda3\Scripts\spyder-script.py", line 10, in 
sys.exit(main())
File "C:\Users\ASUS\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\spyder\app\start.py", line 205, in main
mainwindow.main()
File "C:\Users\ASUS\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\spyder\app\mainwindow.py", line 3734, in main
mainwindow = run_spyder(app, options, args)
File "C:\Users\ASUS\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\spyder\app\mainwindow.py", line 3590, in run_spyder
main.setup()
File "C:\Users\ASUS\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\spyder\app\mainwindow.py", line 977, in setup
'spyder.plugins.{}'.format(plugin_name))
File "C:\Users\ASUS\Anaconda3\lib\importlib\__init__.py", line 127, in import_module
return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level)
File "", line 1006, in _gcd_import
File "", line 983, in _find_and_load
File "", line 967, in _find_and_load_unlocked
File "", line 677, in _load_unlocked
File "", line 728, in exec_module
File "", line 219, in _call_with_frames_removed
File "C:\Users\ASUS\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\spyder\plugins\pylint\__init__.py", line 14, in 
from .plugin import Pylint as PLUGIN_CLASS
File "C:\Users\ASUS\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\spyder\plugins\pylint\plugin.py", line 29, in 
from spyder.plugins.pylint.confpage import PylintConfigPage
File "C:\Users\ASUS\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\spyder\plugins\pylint\confpage.py", line 16, in 
from spyder.plugins.pylint.widgets.pylintgui import PylintWidget
File "C:\Users\ASUS\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\spyder\plugins\pylint\widgets\pylintgui.py", line 37, in 
from spyder.plugins.pylint.utils import get_pylintrc_path
File "C:\Users\ASUS\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\spyder\plugins\pylint\utils.py", line 16, in 
import pylint.config
File "C:\Users\ASUS\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\pylint\config.py", line 54, in 
import toml
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'toml'

Versions

• Spyder version: 4.1.2
• Python version: 3.7
• Qt version:
• PyQt version:
• Operating System name/version: Windows 10

Dependencies

PASTE DEPENDENCIES HERE

[goanpeca]

Hello, it is a problem with the latest pylint package released by Anaconda so while a new package is fixed and released, this issue will persist and the “solution” is to install toml manually in the meantime.

[CAM-Gerlach]

That wouldn’t work in this case because Spyder doesn’t even start due to this issue.

Yeah; the fundamental issue is that no feedback at all is presented to the user when Spyder fails to start early enough in initialization, at least before the mainwindow GUI is displayed, unless its run from a terminal.

@CAM-Gerlach, do you have something else in mind?

Not sure; the installers as discussed will hopefully mitigate most startup issues once and for all, but even with full control over the Python level of the environment and ignoring random corruption and deliberate user action, there is always a chance of an error occurring at some point during initialization due to something in the user’s/OS/machine environment outside of our direct control.

In the case of a startup failure, IMO the UX priority is to at least convey to the user that A. An error occurred, and B. Enough information (error message, traceback, etc) to Google or report it. Right now on Windows with the shortcut, there is no feedback, Spyder simply never launches. I had no idea it was even an error until I ran it from the command line, since Spyder went through the normal splash screen process but then the GUI never displayed, so I didn’t have a way to know what had actually happened or (without running it in the command line, which the average user may not know to do) what to do about it.

I’ll open a new issue discussing this further and some postulated solutions, as we discussed in our call. Thanks!