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This page includes common troubleshooting topics for Anaconda Navigator. If you encounter an issue that is not listed here, you can obtain support for Anaconda through the Anaconda community forums. For Anaconda installation or technical support options, visit our support offerings page.

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Custom Navigator app isn’t appearing on the Home page

Cause
Apps may not appear on the Home page if the conda package hasn’t been uploaded to your Anaconda.org channel, your channel isn’t in the Channels list, or Navigator’s configuration information is corrupted.
Solution
  1. Check that the conda package has been uploaded to your Anaconda.org channel.
  2. Check that your channel has been added to the Channels list.
  3. Remove the .anaconda/navigator folder from your home directory to reset Navigator’s configuration information, then restart Navigator.

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Custom Navigator app won’t launch

Cause
The app can fail to launch due to Navigator configuration issues, even if the application itself is functioning correctly.
Solution
  1. If the application does not launch after installation, confirm that it works via the command line by running the following command: 
    conda run jupyter lab
    If you are not using the example feedstock, the command after run will be the entry: command you have designated.
  2. If JupyterLab starts correctly with conda, remove the .anaconda/navigator folder from your home directory to reset the Navigator configuration information and enable the app to launch correctly from the Navigator application. Then, restart Navigator.
Cause
If you are using Navigator version 2.6.3 and are unable to update to version 2.6.4, it might be because of a dependency conflict between the anaconda-navigator package and the anaconda-toolbox package. (Each package lists incompatible versions of anaconda-cloud-auth as a dependency.)
Solution
To check if you have the anaconda-toolbox package, open Anaconda Prompt (Terminal on macOS/Linux) and run the following command:
conda list anaconda-toolbox
To solve the dependency conflict between anaconda-navigator and anaconda-toolbox:
  1. Close Navigator, if open.
  2. Open Anaconda Prompt (Terminal on macOS/Linux).
  3. Run the following command: 
    conda install --name base anaconda-navigator=2.6.4 anaconda-toolbox=4.1.0
  4. Enter y to approve the package changes.
    Once your base environment is updated, it is safe to close Anaconda Prompt/Terminal.
  5. Reopen Navigator.
Once this dependency conflict is resolved, any future updates to Navigator can be accomplished as usual.
Cause
This is often the result of a corrupted .condarc file.
Solution
To resolve, delete the .condarc file and restart Navigator.
  1. Find the .condarc file. Open Anaconda Prompt (Terminal on macOS/Linux) and enter the command conda info. The output will tell you the location of your .condarc file(s). You can also search for “.condarc” on your computer.

     The .condarc file is frequently found in: 
    C:\Users\<USERNAME>
  2. Optional: Save custom configurations.

     If you had custom configuration in your .condarc file before it was corrupted, save the information to add that configuration back to the new file.
  3. Delete the .condarc file.
  4. Restart Navigator.

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Issues launching or initializing

Cause
Issues launching or initializing Anaconda Navigator may be caused by permission or licensing problems.
Solution
  • If you cannot launch the Anaconda Navigator desktop app via its desktop or application shortcut, you might still be able to launch it via Anaconda Prompt (Terminal on macOS/Linux). Enter the following command: 
        anaconda-navigator
  • If you have permissions issues, there may be a problem with the hidden licenses directory, .continuum. To delete the .continuum directory, open Anaconda Prompt (Terminal on macOS/Linux) and run the following command, depending on your operating system: 
    rd /s .continuum
    Then, relaunch Navigator from the desktop app or Anaconda Prompt (Terminal on macOS/Linux).
  • If removing the licenses directory does not resolve the issue, manually update Navigator by opening Anaconda Prompt (Terminal on macOS/Linux) and running the following command: 
    conda update --name base anaconda-navigator
  • If you have updated Navigator and still have problems, remove and reinstall Anaconda Navigator by opening Anaconda Prompt (Terminal on macOS/Linux) and running the following command: 
    conda remove --name base anaconda-navigator
conda install --name base anaconda-navigator
  • If none of the above work, reset the Anaconda Navigator configuration back to default values by opening Anaconda Prompt (Terminal on macOS/Linux) and running the following command: 
    anaconda-navigator --reset

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PermissionError on macOS Catalina

Cause
macOS Catalina users may experience permission errors where the system does not prompt you for permission to folders requiring access.
Solution
  1. Update Navigator by opening Anaconda Prompt (Terminal on macOS/Linux) and running the following command: 
    conda update --name base anaconda-navigator
  2. Once updated, have Navigator generate the permissions prompt by launching Spyder and running the following in the console: 
    import os
os.listdir('<DIRECTORY>')
    Replace <DIRECTORY> with the folder you need access to.

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Access denied error

Cause
A lock file wasn’t removed when it should have been.
Solution
Open Anaconda Prompt (Terminal on macOS/Linux) and remove the lock file by running the following commands:
conda update --name base conda anaconda-navigator navigator-updater
anaconda-navigator --reset
Cause
The disappearance of Navigator buttons may be caused by an out of sync repodata, a corrupt .condarc file, or an unknown issue.
Solution
  1. Run Update Index from the Environments page of Navigator.
  2. Quit and restart Navigator.
If that solution doesn’t work, try one of the following:
  • Confirm that your .condarc file is not corrupt (see the “Navigator error on start up” troubleshooting topic). Specifically confirm that your channel settings contain defaults.
  • Open Anaconda Prompt (Terminal on macOS/Linux) and run the following command: 
    conda search python
    This downloads a fresh copy of the repodata, which should resolve the problem.
  • If none of the above options work, open an issue detailing the error.

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Trouble logging in to Package Security Manager (On-prem) in Navigator

Cause
Login issues or inability to interact with Package Security Manager (On-prem) can be caused by stale authentication tokens or conflicting channel configurations in Navigator’s config files.
Solution
If you are having issues logging in or know you’re logged in but cannot interact with Package Security Manager (On-prem), try the following solution:
  1. Set logged_api_url, anaconda_server_token, and anaconda_server_token_id in the Navigator config file (anaconda-navigator.ini) to None.
    The token and token_id config variable names have been updated from team_edition_token to anaconda_server_token and team_edition_token_id to anaconda_server_token_id as of Navigator Version 2.4.0. If you downgrade your Navigator application to a version older than 2.4.0, you must manually change these variable names back to their previous versions within your anaconda-navigator.ini file.
  2. Remove the channel_alias: entry from the conda configuration file (.condarc).
  3. Try signing in again.

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VS Code is not appearing on the Navigator Home tab

Cause
Anaconda Navigator launches applications using their executable files. Verify that VS Code’s executable file is located in the correct directory (based on your OS and installation):
C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Programs\Microsoft VS Code
Solution
There are two options for solving this issue:

Reinstall VS Code to ensure that executable is installed in the default location.
  1. Close Navigator.
  2. Uninstall (if necessary) and reinstall VS Code.
    On macOS, make sure the VS Code application is moved from your Downloads folder to your Applications folder.
  3. Re-open Navigator.
If you have installed VS Code to a different location than the default, edit VS Code’s path in your Navigator user preferences.
  1. Open the Anaconda Navigator Preferences dialog from the top menu bar (such as File > Preferences or Anaconda Navigator > Preferences).
  2. Scroll down to the VS Code path setting.
  3. Enter the path to the installation of VS Code you would like Anaconda Navigator to use. This may be similar to examples above, especially if you have a user-specific installation you would rather use over your system-wide installation.
    You do not need to enter the name of the executable file itself. Just the path to the folder that contains that file.
  4. Close and reopen Navigator.

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Anaconda Navigator fails to start and gives Permission denied error

Cause
After installation, Anaconda Navigator may fail to start and give you a “Permission denied” error on the anaconda-client configuration file (/.continuum/anaconda-client/config.yaml). This error is likely due to anaconda-client being installed with admin rights, which leads to incorrect user permissions for the anaconda-client config file.
Solution
You can do a few things to solve this. They are listed from most straightforward to most complex.

  1. Back up your .config.yaml file to a different location.
  2. Delete your .continuum folder.
  3. Start Navigator again.
  4. Copy your saved .config.yaml file back into /.continuum/anaconda-client.
Uninstall Anaconda and then reinstall Anaconda without admin privileges.
You will need administrator privileges to do this.
  1. Search for “powershell”.
  2. Right-click the Windows PowerShell app and select Run as administrator.
  3. Run the following command: 
    icacls C:\Users\<USERNAME>\.continuum /grant:r <USERNAME>:(i,f) /t
    Replace <USERNAME> with your username.
Cause
Users with unverified Anaconda.org email addresses can no longer access the API that Navigator and Anaconda Client use to communicate with Anaconda.org. Navigator 2.5.0+ now catches this error and logs you out of your Anaconda.org connection.
Solution
To connect to Anaconda.org again through Navigator, update your Navigator version or verify your Anaconda.org account.

Verify your anaconda.org account

To fully resolve the issue, we recommend verifying your account on Anaconda.org:
  1. Log in to your Anaconda.org account.
  2. If your email is unverified, you will be prompted to verify it.
  3. Click Resend Confirmation Email.
  4. Follow the instructions in the email you receive to complete the verification process.
Cause
In the CentOS 7 Linux operating system, Orange3 is missing some graphics libraries required by Qt, a framework that Orange Canvas requires to work. These missing dependencies cause an error when starting Navigator: “Could not load the Qt platform plugin “xcb” in "" even though it was found. This application failed to start because no Qt platform plugin could be initialized.”
Solution
  1. Open a terminal application.
  2. Install the missing system libraries and run updates: 
    sudo yum install xcb-util-wm xcb-util-image xcb-util-keysyms xcb-util-renderutil
sudo yum update
Once these libraries are installed and updated, Orange3 should launch correctly on CentOS 7 and the above error should no longer appear when opening Navigator with Orange3 installed.

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Disable Anaconda.com login reminder

Cause
In Navigator versions 2.5.0 and later, a dialog appears every hour (or every 24 hours as of version 2.6.2) to remind users to log in to Anaconda.com, if they are not already logged in. This can be disruptive to users who do not want to log in to Anaconda.com.
Solution
There are a few ways to disable the Anaconda.com login reminder, depending on your version of Navigator:
Work in offline mode or log in to another repository.

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Update popup not automatically appearing

Cause
If you are not automatically prompted to update Navigator upon sign in, there can be several reasons why:
  • The dialog has been hidden
  • Your package index is out of sync
  • defaults is missing from your channels list
Solution
You might have selected Do not show again in the Update popup. If this is the only reason your update popup is failing to appear, you should still see the Update now option beside Connect. To update, select Update now.To have the Update popup appear automatically again:
  1. Open Preferences from the File or Anaconda Navigator menu.
  2. Deselect Hide update dialog on startup.
Navigator fails to recognize an update is available if your package table is not properly updated. To update your package table, click Environments, then Update index….
This issue specifically impacts users without a subscription to our premium repository.
Not having defaults added to your channels list can also cause Navigator’s Update popup to fail to appear.To add defaults to your channels list:
  1. Click Channels on the Home or Environments page.
  2. Click Add.
  3. Enter defaults, then press Enter (Windows)/Return (Mac) on your keyboard.
  4. Click Update channels.
  5. Close and reopen Navigator.