"Timed out waiting for debuggee to spawn" error for certain conda envs on vs code?

Question

Update:

I just discovered that with a python 3.7 environment created with Anaconda (version number 4.11.0, which creates a python 3.7.11), this problem happens while python 3.8(.12) created by conda doesn't have this kind of problem.

And I found a solution: I use integratedTerminal in the launch.json, and without specifying terminal type, the default integrated terminal would be PowerShell which has this problem. After I change the terminal.integrated.shell.Windows setting to cmd.exe, this porlbem goes away and the problem goes through.

Original post:

I am developing a python 3.7 application on vs-code on Windows. I am using Anaconda to manage my working environments (and I have created several evns on the same dev machine). The env I am using for this app is called basic_env which is of version 3.7.10. Previously it was working fine. But today, when I returned from my 10-day holiday, and after I upgraded the vscode (to 1.64.0) and probably the python extension (version v2022.0.1786462952). The launching/debugging stopped working: a window popped up with an error mesage Timed out waiting for debuggee to spawn . I made a simple test python script using the same conda env. My script is only one line

print("test....")

And my launch.json looks like this:

{
        "name": "Python: Current File",
        "type": "python",
        "request": "launch",
        "program": "${file}",
        "console": "integratedTerminal",
        "env": {
            "PYTHONPATH": "${workspaceFolder}"
        },
    },

The same error showed up.

I tried to google this issue, at first I thought this post was the same as my problem: using venv caused this problem, and using the system-global python didn't have this problem. So maybe the bug which was fixed 2 years ago was back along with the updates? But then I tried some other conda envs, some worked and some didn't (but none of them was of version 3.7.10). I tried to upgrade this env to 3.7.11 by:

conda activate basic_env
conda install python=3.7.11

(other existing 3.7.11 envs work fine) but the problem was still there. Also, I don't know how to get the ptvsd.adapter log file in the mentioned post. Could anyone help me track this problem?

Thank you very much!

Cheers

I have the same issue. I notice there is a solution here (https://stackoverflow.com/questions/52462599/visual-studio-code-python-timeout-waiting-for-debugger-connection) but none of those worked for me. — D.L, Jun 01 '22 at 17:38

user3731622 · Answer 1 · 2022-11-18T05:23:19.357

Upon reading this post I tried changing my conda env. I might have changed it a few times and tried to debug. Eventually 1 just worked. I thought maybe it was a python version, so I switched to a conda env which just a few seconds earlier hadn't worked with debugging. But this time it just worked.

I don't have an explanation as to why this worked, but if you're reading this maybe you can just try changing conda env a few times.

Update: I ran into the issue again. This time toggling conda env didn't seem to work. I did try to Run Without Debugging (which worked), and then I tried Start Debugging which to my surprise worked. Again, no answer to why, but trying to provide info which could help someone.

"Timed out waiting for debuggee to spawn" error for certain conda envs on vs code?

1 Answers1