# Losing ability to scroll through raw data plot.

**URL:** <https://mne.discourse.group/t/losing-ability-to-scroll-through-raw-data-plot/2246>\
**Category:** Mailing List Archive (read-only)\
**Tags:** list-archive\
**Created:** [July 7, 2020, 2:43pm UTC](https://mne.discourse.group/t/losing-ability-to-scroll-through-raw-data-plot/2246 "2020-07-07T14:43:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/free1/uploads/mne/original/1X/85cc6bd2b69cb698a166dc6d880fb550510d0144.jpeg) [@system](https://mne.discourse.group/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 7, 2020, 2:43pm UTC](https://mne.discourse.group/t/losing-ability-to-scroll-through-raw-data-plot/2246/1 "2020-07-07T14:43:02Z")

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Hello,

I'm using MNE with the IDLE IDE for Python 3.7 and am having problems  
making my raw plot interactive. I was able to overcome this problem when  
doing everything in Jupyter.

My input file is edf and not fif. The relevant commands from within my  
script are as follows:

directory='/Users/fishbacp/Desktop/my\_file.edf'  
raw = mn.io.read\_raw\_edf(directory, preload=True)  
raw.plot()

The graph appears, but the scrolling features don't function, nor the HELP  
button.

Thanks for any assistance.

Paul

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**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/free1/uploads/mne/original/1X/85cc6bd2b69cb698a166dc6d880fb550510d0144.jpeg) [@system](https://mne.discourse.group/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 7, 2020, 3:25pm UTC](https://mne.discourse.group/t/losing-ability-to-scroll-through-raw-data-plot/2246/2 "2020-07-07T15:25:52Z")

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Do you have matplotlib interactive mode enabled? For example with  
`plt.ion()` in plain Python, or `%matplotlib qt` in IPython?

Eric

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**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/free1/uploads/mne/original/1X/85cc6bd2b69cb698a166dc6d880fb550510d0144.jpeg) [@system](https://mne.discourse.group/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 7, 2020, 3:42pm UTC](https://mne.discourse.group/t/losing-ability-to-scroll-through-raw-data-plot/2246/3 "2020-07-07T15:42:32Z")

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Hi Eric,

Thanks for the suggestion. I tried using plt.ion() since I'm working in  
plain Python, but that didn't fix the issue.

I'm doing everything on a Mac with Catalina 10.15.4. Might that have  
anything to do with the problem.

Your second suggestion for IPython is what always worked for me in Jupyter.

Thanks again.

Paul

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**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/free1/uploads/mne/original/1X/85cc6bd2b69cb698a166dc6d880fb550510d0144.jpeg) [@system](https://mne.discourse.group/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 7, 2020, 3:49pm UTC](https://mne.discourse.group/t/losing-ability-to-scroll-through-raw-data-plot/2246/4 "2020-07-07T15:49:28Z")

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Does `mne sys_info` under "matplotlib" say that you are using the MacOSX  
backend for matplotlib? If you do `matplotlib.use('Qt5Agg')` at the top of  
your script does it work? The MacOSX backend sometimes has  
issues, generally the Qt5Agg backend tends to work better.

Eric

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**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/free1/uploads/mne/original/1X/85cc6bd2b69cb698a166dc6d880fb550510d0144.jpeg) [@system](https://mne.discourse.group/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 7, 2020, 4:08pm UTC](https://mne.discourse.group/t/losing-ability-to-scroll-through-raw-data-plot/2246/5 "2020-07-07T16:08:22Z")

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Unfortunately, neither backend solves the problem.