5 Reasons Why Jupyter Notebook is Not Opening and Solutions

There could be many reasons why Jupyter Notebook may not open, we take a look at the top 5 reasons.

Reason 1: You are using Incorrect Command:

If you are having trouble running the command in CMD or Terminal then you can try one of the below commands as per your setup and see if it works. I have tried to collect as many ways as I know if I have missed any out, please add it to the comment so others may find it helpful.

Windows Command Prompt (CMD):

jupyter notebook




If Using Anaconda Prompt (Conda):

jupyter notebook




General: Using Python3

jupyter notebook




Terminal on macOS/Linux/Unix:

python3 -m notebook




Using Python:

python -m notebook




If you still are having issues opening Jupyter, then you can try to install a package called nbopen, it is a really cool module that will help you open the Notebook with just a single command

pip install nbopen

or,

pip3 install nbopen

Now all you need to do is run nbopen command in the Terminal/CMD.

Reason 2: You do not have Jupyter Notebook Installed

One of the most common reasons why Jupyter Notebook will not start is you have activated a Python/Conda environment that does not have notebook installed.

Example:

 % source activate

(virtualenv) Code2care@Mac % python3 -m notebook

/Users/c2cdev/Desktop/virtualenv/bin/python3: No module named notebook

Now when I deactivate the virtual environment, the same command works!

Reason 3: There is a Port Conflict!

At times there could be some application using port 8888, in such case if you make use of the --port option to choose another port.

Example:

jupyter notebook --port 8899

Reason 4: Firewall or Antivirus Blocking Notebook

There is a possibility that your firewall or antivirus software might be blocking the connection to the Jupyter Notebook server. To fix this, make sure to add the Jupyter Notebook as an exception rule.

Reason 5: Dependencies and Extensions Issue

There can be incorrect or conflicting dependencies or notebook extensions which is causing Jupyter Notebook startup failures.

You can disable the extensions and try if it works.

jupyter notebook --no-browser