# Errors with loading .snirf files in mne-nirs **URL:** \ **Category:** Support & Discussions\ **Tags:** fnirs\ **Created:** [December 2, 2021, 3:29pm UTC](https://mne.discourse.group/t/errors-with-loading-snirf-files-in-mne-nirs/4069 "2021-12-02T15:29:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![esbenkc](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/mne.discourse.group/esbenkc/32/948_2.png) [@esbenkc](https://mne.discourse.group/u/esbenkc)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2021, 3:29pm UTC](https://mne.discourse.group/t/errors-with-loading-snirf-files-in-mne-nirs/4069/1 "2021-12-02T15:29:27Z")
- MNE version: 0.24.0 - MNE-NIRS version: 0.1.2 - operating system: Windows 10 I consistently get this error when attempting to load .snirf files. The same error arises when trying to load nirx output folders: `TypeError : expected dtype object, got 'numpy.dtype[float64]'` Minimally reproducible example copy+pasted directly from the tutorials: ```python import mne import mne_nirs import os fnirs_data_folder = mne.datasets.fnirs_motor.data_path() fnirs_raw_dir = os.path.join(fnirs_data_folder, 'Participant-1') raw_intensity = mne.io.read_raw_nirx(fnirs_raw_dir).load_data() ``` The error seems to happen at different points, e.g. when taking the annotations from the .snirf file. Here is the complete error output: ```python c:\Users\xxx\Desktop\BCI\Bachelor\_ml\fnirs_ml.py in preprocess(path, verbose) 44 if verbose: 45 ic("Loading ", path) ---> 46 raw_intensity = mne.io.read_raw_snirf(path, preload=True) 47 raw_od = mne.preprocessing.nirs.optical_density(raw_intensity) 48 C:\ProgramData\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\mne\io\snirf\_snirf.py in read_raw_snirf(fname, optode_frame, preload, verbose) 52 mne.io.Raw : Documentation of attribute and methods. 53 """ ---> 54 return RawSNIRF(fname, optode_frame, preload, verbose) 55 56 in __init__ (self, fname, optode_frame, preload, verbose) C:\ProgramData\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\mne\io\snirf\_snirf.py in __init__ (self, fname, optode_frame, preload, verbose) 366 info["subject_info"]['birthday'] = birthday 367 --> 368 super(RawSNIRF, self). __init__ (info, preload, filenames=[fname], 369 last_samps=[last_samps], 370 verbose=verbose) in __init__ (self, info, preload, first_samps, last_samps, filenames, raw_extras, orig_format, dtype, buffer_size_sec, orig_units, verbose) C:\ProgramData\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\mne\io\base.py in __init__ (self, info, preload, first_samps, last_samps, filenames, raw_extras, orig_format, dtype, buffer_size_sec, orig_units, verbose) 286 # If we have True or a string, actually do the preloading 287 if load_from_disk: --> 288 self._preload_data(preload) 289 self._init_kwargs = _get_argvalues() 290 C:\ProgramData\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\mne\io\base.py in _preload_data(self, preload) 565 data_buffer = None 566 logger.info('Reading %d ... %d = %9.3f ... %9.3f secs...' % --> 567 (0, len(self.times) - 1, 0., self.times[-1])) 568 self._data = self._read_segment( 569 data_buffer=data_buffer, projector=self._projector) C:\ProgramData\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\mne\io\base.py in times(self) 1577 def times(self): 1578 """Time points.""" -> 1579 out = _arange_div(self.n_times, float(self.info['sfreq'])) 1580 out.flags['WRITEABLE'] = False 1581 return out TypeError: expected dtype object, got 'numpy.dtype[float64]' ``` ---
**Author:** ![richard](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/mne.discourse.group/richard/32/15_2.png) [@richard](https://mne.discourse.group/u/richard)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2021, 4:57pm UTC](https://mne.discourse.group/t/errors-with-loading-snirf-files-in-mne-nirs/4069/2 "2021-12-02T16:57:47Z")
Hello @esbenkc and welcome to the forum! Another user has seen a similar error message and fixed the problem by updating NumPy: > [@Can't read .set EEG files anymore](https://mne.discourse.group/t/cant-read-set-eeg-files-anymore/3940/6): > > Ok, so this problem has been fixed by updating all python libraries I think it was due to numpy or scipy not being up to date Sorry for the trouble! Emile Maybe you can try this too. If it doesn’t help, can you please share the output of ```python import mne mne.sys_info() ``` Thanks! Richard cc @rob-luke Edit: As a general remark, we **strongly** recommend to follow our [official installation instructions](https://mne.tools/stable/install/mne_python.html#d-plotting-and-source-analysis), so you’ll end up with a new, dedicated MNE-Python virtual environment with the correct versions of all dependencies. ---
**Author:** ![esbenkc](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/mne.discourse.group/esbenkc/32/948_2.png) [@esbenkc](https://mne.discourse.group/u/esbenkc)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2021, 10:10am UTC](https://mne.discourse.group/t/errors-with-loading-snirf-files-in-mne-nirs/4069/3 "2021-12-03T10:10:30Z")
Thank you! To fix it, I ran `conda create --name=mne --channel=conda-forge mne` like you suggested. It ran for too long attempting to fetch some packages so I cancelled the process and entered the environment that seemed to have all the necessary packages anyways. I don’t know why it took so long. Numpy was version \<1.19 because it’s a Tensorflow requirement so that limits the ability to work with both at once. I hope Tensorflow updates that dependency 😅 _Edit: Seems like Keras works fine with updated Numpy_ ---
**Author:** ![richard](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/mne.discourse.group/richard/32/15_2.png) [@richard](https://mne.discourse.group/u/richard)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2021, 12:16pm UTC](https://mne.discourse.group/t/errors-with-loading-snirf-files-in-mne-nirs/4069/4 "2021-12-03T12:16:58Z")
> [@esbenkc](#): > > It ran for too long attempting to fetch some packages It may run for a considerable amount of time on Windows. 20, 30 mins are nothing unheard-of 🙂 It’ll be much faster if you use `mamba` instead of `conda`, but we currently don’t mention this in our documentation. ---
**Author:** ![esbenkc](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/mne.discourse.group/esbenkc/32/948_2.png) [@esbenkc](https://mne.discourse.group/u/esbenkc)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2021, 12:36pm UTC](https://mne.discourse.group/t/errors-with-loading-snirf-files-in-mne-nirs/4069/5 "2021-12-03T12:36:17Z")
Okay, interesting! I have looked at mamba but seems like I’ll have to use it then 😉