Python tkinter askopenfilename not responding

Question

I am using tkinter asopenfilename to trigger a file chooser so as to read files from my local directory. My problem is that after the file is chosen, the window freezes and python is 'not responding'.

I've tried the answer from this post: Tkinter askopenfilename() won't close no luck.

Below is my code:

from tkinter import Tk
from tkinter.filedialog import askopenfilename

root = Tk()
root.withdraw() 
root.update()
filename = askopenfilename() 
print(filename)

Is there anything that I am missing? Let me know if you need more clarity. Thanks!

Works ok for me with Python 3.6.5 on win10. What versions and IDE are you using? — figbeam, Aug 02 '18 at 23:06
I am using Python 3.6.3 on OSX. It's running on Jupyter Notebook — Daniel, Aug 03 '18 at 00:30
Saw [another question](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/21866537/what-could-cause-an-open-file-dialog-window-in-tkinter-python-to-be-really-slow) in which a comment stated: "Calling root.update() after askopenfilename() works". for OSX and python2. Maybe worth a try. — figbeam, Aug 03 '18 at 00:40
I believe you do not need the `.update()` method for what you want to do. That entire line can be removed. Try that :). — Sun Bear, Mar 01 '19 at 03:55
A similar thing happened with me too, and the IDLE also crashed. But, closing the IDLE and restarting it solved the problem. Initially, I had made a `syntax-error` and probably that had messed up with the `askopenfilename()` internally. — TopUser, May 28 '21 at 14:44

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 29 '19 at 08:20

I tried all above solutions but didn't seem to solve the same issue for me. The dialog box was opening but somewhere in the background.

Found this code elsewhere and it works like a charm for me. On windows 10 too, python 3.x, and using Jupyter Notebook.

Posting it here in case it could help others.

    import tkinter as tk
    from tkinter import filedialog
    root = tk.Tk()
    root.withdraw()
    root.call('wm', 'attributes', '.', '-topmost', True)
    file_path = filedialog.askopenfilename( 
    %gui tk
    print(file_path)

This worked for me on 6/8/22 - thank you! – Jim Jun 08 '22 at 17:45 — Jim, Jun 08 '22 at 17:45

Mukeshchand Thakur · Answer 2 · 2018-12-23T14:50:14.607

0

I tried using root.update() after filename = askopenfilename() in my MacOS.

Following worked for me-

from tkinter import Tk
from tkinter.filedialog import askopenfilename
root = Tk()
root.withdraw() 
filename = askopenfilename() 
root.update()
print(filename)

edited Dec 23 '18 at 14:50

answered Dec 23 '18 at 14:41

Mukeshchand Thakur

1
1

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 08 '19 at 18:49

I had the same behavior on MacOS and adding the iPython magic %gui tk appears to be solving the issue:

from tkinter import Tk
from tkinter.filedialog import askopenfilename

%gui tk
root = Tk()
root.withdraw() 
filename = askopenfilename(multiple=True) 

print(filename)

From the docs:

%gui tk      # enable Tk event loop integration

score -1 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 01 '19 at 03:24

askopenfilename doesn't work in windows


from tkinter import *
#from tkFileDialog import askopenfilename
import tkinter.filedialog

def callback():
    name= tkinter.filedialog.askopenfilenames() 
    print (name)

errmsg = 'Error!'
Button(text='File Open', command=callback).pack(fill=X)
mainloop()

Python tkinter askopenfilename not responding

4 Answers4

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