getting started on macos

Support & Discussions
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1

I’m trying to get started with MNE for data analysis, coming from Matlab. I’m on an Intel mac under Sonoma 14.8.4. I downloaded the latest MNE-python and Spyder and installed them (in this order) with the Installers with apparent success. What then? Not sure what to expect.

I tried running MNE-Python.app, but it returns immediately (there are multiple MNE-related messages in Console but none obviously error-related). The Install –> MNE-Python Install page suggests to first install the IDE, but the Install–>IDE Integration page suggests to “open the Prompt” which is initially disconcerting because prompts are not things one opens, usually. After some head-scratching I discovered a Prompt (MNE).app in a subfolder of Applications. Running it allowed me to find the right path to Python to put in Spyder. However if I write ‘import mne’ in Spyder’s console, I get ‘ModuleNotFoundError: No module named ‘mne’'. The Install–>Testing your installation suggests to run ‘python -c “import mne; mne.sys_info()”‘ in “the Prompt”. This gives a long listing as expected, suggesting that the installation is OK. Running System Info (MNE).app opens a web page listing hardware and packages, also apparently OK.

What am I missing? Should I instead install via pip or conda?

2

Hello @adc and welcome to the forum! This is indeed odd. Are you sure you saved the settings in Spyder, such that it correctly picks up the Python environment that belongs to MNE? The fact that you can start Spyder and the Prompt indicates that everything should be working correctly.

What you can try – as a workaround – is: start the Prompt, and type spyder. This should launch Spyder from the correct environment, and import mne should work.

Good luck,

Richard

3

Thanks! After reboot it now works as expected.

Alain