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Spyder 3 "Set the working directory of the console" does not work

I have been using Spyder 2 as my standard Python IDE for a couple of years, and when preparing a class for signal processing, I came across a new Spyder 3 on Anaconda and decided to see how it looks.

Firstly, I upgraded the Anaconda distribution on my Ubuntu 16.04 office computer to the latest version (that is, I had a previous version already installed), and then I was really surprised when the “Install console working directory” button on File Explorer (top right, between the folder icon and the up arrow) is missing. I can change the working directory manually on the IPython console, but this is impractical and, of course, will not motivate students!

Thinking that this might be a conda update error, I decided to start downloading and installing Anaconda for Windows on my home laptop (which most students will probably do), and it also does not have the Install Console Working Directory button.

By then I thought that the new version of Spyder could have abandoned it, but, strangely enough, the Spyder GitHub page has a screenshot of the new Spyder 3, which has this exact same button (again: top right, between the folder icon and the up arrow)!

EDIT: here is a screenshot of what my Spyder looks like on Windows (a big red arrow indicates where the icon should be):

enter image description here

Does anyone know if there is a setting that hides the "Install Console Working Directory" button, or if it is a bug in a later version of Anaconda that does not display it?

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3 answers

Answering my own question: I contacted the Spyder developers, and this is "half the mistake": P (my choice of words).

Let me explain:

  • The alleged functionality of Spyder 3 is to automatically change the working directory of the console when navigating through the file explorer, so the absence of the old button is intentional and not an error;

  • However, this new functionality is currently not working, which is a bug: P

The good news is that this will be fixed for Spyder 3.0.2, which should come out in a few days :)

(I was also told that Anaconda usually takes several days to add new versions to its repositories, so it may take a short time until we can update Spyder via conda )

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In the case when you do not change your directory automatically, an alternative is to manually find the directory you want to go to, and inside the IPython console, just go to that directory directly.

% cd 'Directory Location

Remember to run a health check, and then run% pwd.

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I used Spyder 3.0 and ran into the same problem. I managed to get around this: go to the directory that you want to create as a working folder in the upper right version. Close and open Spyder. It takes this as a working directory.

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