Update Anaconda and Spyder??

[Tuxedo]

I'm using Anaconda Navigator 1.9.7 and Spyder 3.3.2 in Windows 8. Everything seems to work fine but I'm aware there are more recent versions out there. Is there any compelling reason to upgrade? I'm nervous about breaking something and having a huge mess on my hands.

I actually tried to upgrade Spyder using 'conda install spyder=4.2.1' and got a bunch of errors about incompatibilities. After this, I'm tempted to just leave things as they are.

Comments?

[snippsat]

It is.

conda update conda
conda update spyder

Always do this when (base) environment is activate.
Eg use Anaconda Prompt

One of the strong point is that you can make your own new environment,
with eg Python 3.9.1 and Spyder ect...

conda create --name new_env conda jupyterlab pandas matplotlib requests spyder python=3.9.1

So from base environment,eg i activate myself as i use cmder or use Anaconda Prompt.

C:\
λ cd Anaconda3\Scripts\

C:\Anaconda3\Scripts
λ activate.bat

# See (base) so now is activated 
(base) C:\Anaconda3\Scripts
conda create --name new_env conda jupyterlab pandas matplotlib requests spyder python=3.9.1

When finishes activate new_env

(base) C:\Anaconda3
λ conda activate new_env

(new_env) C:\Anaconda3
λ cd ..

(new_env) C:\
λ python -V
Python 3.9.1

(new_env) C:\
λ conda list spyder
# packages in environment at C:\Anaconda3\envs\new_env:
#
# Name                    Version                   Build  Channel
pyls-spyder               0.3.0              pyhd3eb1b0_0
spyder                    4.2.1            py39haa95532_1
spyder-kernels            1.10.1           py39haa95532_0

So now you work from new_env where you have Python 3.9.1 and newest version of Spyder.

[Tuxedo]

Thanks for your reply. I managed to update Anaconda Navigator to 1.10 and Spyder to 4.21, but now when I launch Spyder I get an error that nbconvert isn't installed and is mandatory. So, I tried 'conda install nbconvert' and got a list of inconsistent packages:

mro-base
mro-base_impl
r-bindr
r-bindrcpp
r-revoutils
r-revoutilsmath

I then tried 'conda update mro-base' and got the same message back about inconsistent packages. What should I do now???

[snippsat]

Try always when (base) is active.

conda update --all
# Or first
conda install anaconda
conda update --all

Making a new environment as shown,then get new stuff of all that chosen and needed.
Then don't need updating 100's of packages that you may not use.
Like mro-base is for R programming language.

[Tuxedo]

I really don't want to try creating a new environment before getting my current one updated/fixed. I tried 'conda update --all' and it gets stuck on the last line of the below (been sitting there for the past 45 minutes). Not sure what to try next.

(base) C:\Users\Tuxedo>conda update --all
Collecting package metadata (current_repodata.json): done
Solving environment: /
The environment is inconsistent, please check the package plan carefully
The following packages are causing the inconsistency:

  - defaults/win-64::r-base==3.6.1=hf18239d_1
failed with repodata from current_repodata.json, will retry with next repodata source.
Solving environment: failed with repodata from current_repodata.json, will retry with next repodata source.
Collecting package metadata (repodata.json): done
Solving environment: /
The environment is inconsistent, please check the package plan carefully
The following packages are causing the inconsistency:

  - defaults/win-64::r-base==3.6.1=hf18239d_1
failed
Solving environment: \
Found conflicts! Looking for incompatible packages.
This can take several minutes.  Press CTRL-C to abort.
Examining mro-base:  42%|██████████████████████████▌                                    | 8/19 [00:21<00:34,  3.13s/it]|
Examining pandas-datareader:  84%|████████████████████████████████████████████?        | 16/19 [00:50<00:19,  6.63s/it]/
Examining cython:  95%|████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████?   | 18/19 [00:55<00:04,  4.80s/it]|
Examining conflict for navigator-updater _ipyw_jlab_nb_ext_conf rpy2 conda-verify conda-build nbconvert pandas-dataread\
Examining conflict for anaconda _ipyw_jlab_nb_ext_conf:  47%|██████████?           | 9/19 [1:09:48<1:24:49, 508.94s/i-

[snippsat]

(been sitting there for the past 45 minutes). Not sure what to try next.

It most faster just to download a new version.
If you not have keep your version regularly updated then,then it can lock up like this and use long time and not fix all stuff.

Remembered all version is stand alone,so can just download first and test the new version.
There also Miniconda work the same just without all packages.
A little sketchy that you still use Windows 8,support in end January 2023.
Can give unwanted trouble with newer version of python.
Also online Colab has most installed and Free to use with access to GPUs.

[Tuxedo]

I guess the prudent thing to do is uninstall what I have and do a complete reinstall. I'll probably just continue using what I have until it doesn't work anymore, then do the above.