Spyder Debugger Crashes

Question

Mac OS 12.2.1 Anaconda Navigator 2.1.2 Spyder 5.1.5

I’ve been to the Spyder Web site, performed what was described as “Basic First-Aid” as well as “Emergency CPR” without satisfactory resolution. The first symptom was that the debugger just hung. After performing the suggested fixes (updating Anaconda, Spyder, and Spyder dependencies, system re-boot, etc.), the debugger now reports: “OperationalError: attempt to write a readonly database.”

I’m at my wits’ end. I’m wondering if I need to completely re-install all of Anaconda. Is there a “best way” to do this? Is there a web site that I can consult that will demonstrate how to get a fresh installation?

ADDENDUM

So, I cleaned Anaconda from my machine (what a horrific experience!) and re-installed it, using conda for both tasks. I started Anaconda and then launched Spyder. Then I loaded one of my modules, set a brake-point in the editor, and boom! The Spyder debugger worked. However, the new installation of Anaconda was lacking a particular library: pyreadstat. I used conda to get this library. I then launched Anaconda again, saw that pyreadstat was now in the base(root) environment. I ran one of my packages (8 modules mainly consisting of numpy and itertools manipulations of N-D arrays) and everything worked, including calls to pyreadstat to read SAS datasets. Okay, everything seemed copacetic. So, I tried to debug one of my modules and the debugger failed again, returning the message: “OperationalError: attempt to write a readonly database.” WTF! Is conda trashing Spyder’s debugger in some mysterious way? I don’t get it. Why would pyreadstat affect Spyder. It must be conda.

Answer 1

To answer my own question, in the Mac Terminal app, I typed:

--> conda install -c conda-forge spyder=5.2.2

Boom! All is well.