SystemError: initialization of QtCore failed without raising an exception

Question

I am trying to plot something with matplotlib but when I import it like this:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

in Pycharm Community 2016.1.4 using Anaconda version 3.5.1, I get this error:

from PyQt4 import QtCore
SystemError: initialization of QtCore failed without raising an exception

What is wrong here? I havent found anything via google or here on SO that is the same as my problem.

Lamontlamontagne

What is the full error you get, including traceback? Can you try from PyQt4 import QtCore without importing matplotlib and will it give the same error? – Joo

I am having the same issue @Lamontlamontagne Ever figure out a fix? When i try from PyQt5 import QtCore in PyCharm, I receive the following error: /usr/local/Cellar/python3/3.6.0_1/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.6/bin/python3.6 /Users/me/pyfo/project/testing.py Traceback (most recent call last): File "/Users/me/pyfo/project/testing.py", line 1, in <module> from PyQt5 import QtCore SystemError: initialization of QtCore failed without raising an exception Process finished with exit code 1 – Jacinthe

@Jacinthe Not really, I ended up re-installing Python and PyQt - and lo and behold, it worked. Not very satisfactory, but thats how I solved it. – Lamontlamontagne

interesting, I did the same thing. How did you install? Homebrew or download from site? I hear some of these issues will be fixed in May with the new release of PyQt5 5.9 Try running this script if you have PyQt5.8: pythonspot.com/en/pyqt5-menu Here is my error: pastebin.com/RJ3gnrAT Does it work for you @Lamontlamontagne ? – Jacinthe

For those coming here because they get the SystemError: initialization of QtCore failed without raising an exception error despite that pyqt is installed. Check your version. I had version 5.9.2. Upgrading to 5.15 fixed the problem for me. – Arris

Answer 1

I would Suggest you do these things it will definitely work as it worked for me.

python -m pip install PyQt5

This will completely resolve this issue by re-installing it with all dependencies required.

Thanks.

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Answer 2

Solved this issue with :

conda install -c conda-forge pyqt

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