Spyder: Getting "Spyder already running" warning when it's not

[4c656554]

Description of your problem

On windows 7 I get a

What steps will reproduce the problem?

1. Open sypder from cmd (spyder.bat)
2. Close (pressing X in rop right)
3. Attempt to open spyder again (cmd spyder.exe or .bat)

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

I expect spyder to open I get this (which does work if I open a new instance)

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

Please provide any additional information below

This is not a show-stopping issue. It seems as though the lockfile mechanism isn't being properly released. I'm not sure how to "wipe the slate".

Versions and main components

• Spyder Version: 2.5.3.2
• Python Version: 2.7.10
• Operating system: Windows 7
  

  Dependencies

Please go to the menu entry Help > Optional Dependencies (or
Help > Dependencies), press the button Copy to clipboard
and paste the contents below:
IPython >=1.0 : 2.4.1 (OK)
jedi >=0.8.1 : 0.9.0 (OK)
matplotlib >=1.0: 1.4.3 (OK)
pandas >=0.13.1 : 0.16.2 (OK)
pep8 >=0.6 : 1.6.2 (OK)
pyflakes >=0.5.0: 0.9.2 (OK)
pygments >=1.6 : 2.0.2 (OK)
pylint >=0.25 : 1.4.3 (OK)
rope >=0.9.2 : 0.10.2 (OK)
sphinx >=0.6.6 : 1.3.2 (OK)
sympy >=0.7.3 : 0.7.6.1 (OK)
zmq >=2.1.11 : 14.7.0 (OK)

Many thanks for a great application.

[4c656554]

Note. This persists even after a reboot.

[ccordoba12]

Please update Spyder to 2.3.8 and try again.

[4c656554]

Thanks. The issue persists though (also the spyder.exe was removed - I launched using spdyer.bat).

I upgraded using pip install spyder --upgrade

[bobjuanson]

I am encountering this issue as well. It persists through reboot. I have upgraded spyder and it continues.

I believe it started because I attempted to launch spyder through the dashboard, and it did not respond. I then launched it from console and encountered the issue.

Any suggestions on how to resolve this?

[ccordoba12]

You need to look for a directory called .spyder2 in your Users\<your account> directory, the find a file called spyder.lock and remove it.

[allanzelener]

Just ran into this issue with Spyder 3. The directory with the spyder.lock file now seems to be <home dir>/.config/spyder[-py3].

[equaeghe]

(Spyder 3.0.2 on Linux) The lock file seems to be a symlink to some other file. I encountered this issue and the symlink was broken. So a check to find out whether this symlink is broken may need to be performed.

[ccordoba12]

We'll improve our detection algorithm in Spyder 3.1. This is implemented in pull request #3659.

[feresm]

same thing in macOS El Capitan and spyder 3.0.2 and I am unable to find the spyder.lock file. This makes spyder unusable. Any help?

tks

[feresm]

I could not find neither spyder.lock nor .spyder2 directory. So I am stuck.

[ccordoba12]

@feresm, open a terminal and run

cd ~/.spyder

or

cd ~/.spyder-py3

in case your running Spyder with Python 3, then

rm -f spyder.lock

and finally start Spyder again.

[feresm]

Thanks Carlos, but I had already solved the issue. Let me tell what I did as it can help others. I use anaconda and I discovered that when you update spider it does not remove the previous versions. Then, I removed them and reinstalled the version 3.0.2 rebooted and it worked. Maybe a coincidence, maybe not. Anyway, I am using python 2.7 (mac) and none f the directories you listed before in this thread existed (or I did not find them). thx again.

[equaeghe]

Hit this issue again with spyder 3.0.2.

[ccordoba12]

As the milestone clearly states, this was fixed in Spyder 3.1, so please update.

[charanjitpabla]

This is happening to me. I am running spyder 3.3.4 version under anaconda3. Any help?

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

Spyder is not running so not sure why this message comes up.

[jeromemaleski]

I just had this problem after updating spyder. I deleted .spyder2-py3 in my user directory and this fixed my problem.

[biazzotto]

Same problem here:

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

Spyder 4.1.3
Python 3.7.6
Windows 10
under Anaconda 3, using conda-forge repository

[pawansutar]

run command spyder - - reset on anaconda prompt

[Cemalbc]

Same problem here:

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

Spyder 4.1.3
Python 3.7.6
Windows 10
under Anaconda 3, using conda-forge repository

I met the same problem. I use command in anaconda prompt: spyder --new-instance. Hope this problem will be fixed.