Disclaimer

This documentation is intended for industrial engineering students at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.

Troubleshooting

Download problems

Cause

The Anaconda installer files are large (over 300 MB), and some users have problems with errors and interrupted downloads when downloading large files.

Solution

Download the large Anaconda installer file, and restart it if the download is interrupted or you need to pause it.

No shortcuts

After installing on Windows, in the Windows Start menu I cannot see Anaconda prompt, Anaconda Cloud and Navigator shortcuts.

Cause

This may be caused by the way Windows updates the Start menu, or by having multiple versions of Python installed, where they are interfering with one another. Existing Python installations, installations of Python modules in global locations, or libraries that have the same names as Anaconda libraries can all prevent Anaconda from working properly.

Solution

If start menu shortcuts are missing, try rebooting your computer or restarting Windows Explorer.

If that doesn’t work, clear $PYTHONPATH and re-install Anaconda. Other potential solutions are covered in the “Conflicts with system state” section of this blog post.

Failed to create menus or add PATH

During installation on a Windows system, a dialog box appears that says “Failed to create Anaconda menus, Abort Retry Ignore” or “Failed to add Anaconda to the system PATH.” There are many possible Windows causes for this.

Solution

Try these solutions, in order:

  1. Do not install on a PATH longer than 1024 characters.
  2. Turn off anti-virus programs during install, then turn back on.
  3. Uninstall all previous Python installations.
  4. Clear all PATHs related to Python in sysdm.cpl file.
  5. Delete any previously set up Java PATHs.
  6. If JDK is installed, uninstall it.

Conda: command not found

Cause

Problems with the PATH environment variable can cause “conda: command not found” errors or a failure to load the correct versions of python.

Solution

  1. Find the location of your Anaconda binary directory.
  2. In your home directory, in the .bashrc file, add a line to add that location to your PATH.
  3. Close and then re-open your terminal windows.

E.g. a user with the user name “bob” on a Linux machine whose Anaconda binary directory is ~/anaconda would add this line to the .bashrc file:

export PATH="/home/bob/anaconda/bin:$PATH"

Spyder errors

Cause

This may be caused by errors in the Spyder setting and configuration files.

Solution

  1. Close and relaunch Spyder and see if the problem remains.
  2. On the menu, select Start, then select Reset Spyder Settings and see if the problem remains.
  3. Close Spyder and relaunch it from the Anaconda Prompt:
    1. From the Start menu, open the Anaconda Prompt.
    2. At the Anaconda Prompt, enter Spyder.
    3. See if the problem remains.
  4. Delete the directory .spyder2 and then repeat the previous steps from Step 1. Depending on your version of Windows, .spyder2 may be in C:\Documents and Settings\Your_User_Name or in C:\Users\Your_User_Name.

Replace Your_User_Name, with your Windows user name as it appears in the Documents and Settings folder.

Managing packages

On the Navigator Environments tab, the packages table in the right column lists the packages included in the environment selected in the left column.

Packages are managed separately for each environment. Changes you make to packages only apply to the active environment.

Click a column heading in the table to sort the table by package name, description, or version.

Navigator Environments

The Update Index button updates the packages table with all packages that are available in any of the enabled channels.

Filtering the packages table

By default, only Installed packages are shown in the packages table. To filter the table to show different packages, click the arrow next to Installed, then select which packages to display: Installed, Not Installed, Upgradable or All.

Selecting the Upgradable filter lists packages that are installed and have upgrades available.

Finding a package

In the Search Packages box, type the name of the package.

Installing a package

  1. Select the Not Installed filter to list all packages that are available in the environment’s channels but are not installed.

Only packages that are compatible with your current environment are listed.

  1. Select the name of the package you want to install, or in the Version column, click the blue up arrow.

  2. Click the Apply button.

If after installing a new package it doesn’t appear in the packages table, select the Home tab, then click the Refresh button to reload the packages table.

Upgrading a package

  1. Select the Upgradable filter to list all installed packages that have upgrades available.

  2. Click the checkbox next to the package you want to upgrade, then in the menu that appears select Mark for Upgrade.

OR

  1. In the Version column, click the blue up arrow.

  2. Click the Apply button.

Installing a different package version

  1. Click the checkbox next to the package whose version you want to change.

  2. In the menu that appears, select Mark for specific version installation. If other versions are available for this package, they are displayed in a list.

  3. Click the package version you want to install.

  4. Click the Apply button.

Removing a package

  1. Click the checkbox next to the package you want to remove.
  2. In the menu that appears, select Mark for Removal.
  3. Click the Apply button.