VS Code Debugger not working for python

GHANASHYAM SATPATHY 306

I am experiencing debugging issue for my VS Code in WIN-10. It happened since weekend when I did OS restart . It was working fine before and I had launch.json configured too. Debugging was working fine. Any troubleshooting tips. It seems when I do Run->"start Debugging' no command comes to terminal. Any VS Code log file that I can look at to troubleshoot the issue. Following is the VS Code version I have in my system.

Version: 1.64.0 (user setup)
Commit: 5554b12acf27056905806867f251c859323ff7e9
Date: 2022-02-03T04:22:20.678Z
Electron: 13.5.2
Chromium: 91.0.4472.164
Node.js: 14.16.0
V8: 9.1.269.39-electron.0
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.18363

An early response is highly appreciated.

Thanks

Ken Tucker 5,856 Reputation points

2022-02-07T11:18:18.13+00:00

Do you have a python vs code extension installed?

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ms-python.python
GHANASHYAM SATPATHY 306 Reputation points

2022-02-07T11:24:26.097+00:00

Yes it is there, hence it was working before too.
NickS 306 Reputation points

2022-02-07T14:03:30.013+00:00

I have the exact same issue. When VS Code was updated to 1.64.0 it seems to have broken Python debugging.

Clicking on "Run Python File" works fine. Clicking on "Debug Python File" now does nothing. This worked fine before the update.

I might need to look at how to roll-back this latest update.

Thanks.
GHANASHYAM SATPATHY 306 Reputation points

2022-02-07T14:10:52.393+00:00

Great! Exactly same issue I am facing.
Clicking on "Run Python File" works fine. Clicking on "Debug Python File" now does nothing.

Let me know if you get any workaround.

Thanks.
Joe McDaniel 1 Reputation point

2022-03-22T16:38:26.533+00:00

I have a similar problem -- launch.json seems to be completely ignored for run or debug. I tried the switch to an old version of the intellisense extension to no effect. I am running latest VSCode on Ubuntu (also latest version). This has been a problem since I first installed VSCode -- I keep looking for a fix, but nada .....
John Romania 1 Reputation point

2022-08-26T16:50:58.647+00:00

Money!....thanks!

Accepted answer

NickS 306 Reputation points

2022-02-07T14:52:13.097+00:00

The Python extension is broken - just seems to have updated at the same time as VS Code.

Go back to extension version v2021.12.1559732655 by clicking on the extensions control and selecting "Install another version...". Note that you will have to disable "Extensions: Auto Update", which might be a good thing. I also set "Update: Mode" to "none" for good measure.
Please sign in to rate this answer.

13 people found this answer helpful.
GHANASHYAM SATPATHY 306 Reputation points

2022-02-07T15:24:41.837+00:00

Thanks a lot @NickS it worked.

cole shaler 6 Reputation points

2022-06-01T04:54:31.06+00:00

thanks that worked. so weird

dudemcfro 1 Reputation point

2022-06-01T16:39:39.62+00:00

That didn't work for me :( Strange...

dudemcfro 1 Reputation point

2022-06-01T16:51:34.85+00:00

That didn't work for me :( Strange...

David Powell 1 Reputation point

2022-07-05T16:21:22.403+00:00

Thank you for this solution. Worked for me.

Tavakkolmoghaddam, Farid [ETHUS] 1 Reputation point

2022-07-18T21:49:33.197+00:00

Thanks, that worked!

21077577 1 Reputation point

2022-07-26T07:49:14.103+00:00

Thank you, it worked for me. I was struggling to find the reason why my python code not use debug.

Thanks again

kamal 1 Reputation point

2022-09-15T16:09:07.68+00:00

If it didn;t work for you, make sure your configurations looks like this one: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/python/debugging#_additional-configurations. This was my problem.

Svyatoslav Pchelintsev 1 Reputation point

2022-10-21T10:44:06.943+00:00

Hello from October 2022. The extension versions are changing, but the bug persists (I use python 3.6.9). Thank you @NickS !

Kostadin Krushkov 0 Reputation points

2023-02-22T06:11:47.5066667+00:00

This version no longer works as a fix, at least for me. And the problem persists

Santiago Fortes 0 Reputation points

2024-06-25T20:55:17.79+00:00

Thank you for this. Worked.
Sign in to comment

Use comments to ask for clarification, additional information, or improvements to the question.

9 additional answers

Neely, Ronald 11 Reputation points

2022-07-23T00:20:28.487+00:00

So this bug is back with Python Extension version v2022.10.1 running on Ubuntu 18.04 with python 3.6.9.
This is a serious bug that keeps happening.
I had to roll back to extension version v2021.12.1559732655 to debug.
Please sign in to rate this answer.

2 people found this answer helpful.
Anonymous

2022-07-27T03:33:51.997+00:00

Maybe it's caused by low python version,
Following is the release note:
A Visual Studio Code extension with rich support for the Python language (for all actively supported versions of the language: >=3.7), including features such as IntelliSense (Pylance), linting, debugging, code navigation, code formatting, refactoring, variable explorer, test explorer, and more!
After changing from python 3.6->3.9, it worked!

Deston Chung 6 Reputation points

2022-08-01T03:33:58.39+00:00

I faced the same issue to. I rolled back to v2022.8.1 and it worked for my python 3.6.

I think RickChen is right too though, 3.9 worked for me but 3.6 didnt.

Tom Bertalan 1 Reputation point

2022-08-08T01:01:48.097+00:00

That's definitely the problem. But 3.7.13 is listed as released less than five months ago. insisting that all my environments use such a new python version seems a little draconian for a core IDE tool like this. Surely they can go without f-strings or whatever. Many of my virtual environments are 3.5, or even 2.7, and they worked fine in the debugger until a few weeks ago, AFAICT.

Tom Bertalan 1 Reputation point

2022-08-08T01:04:31.557+00:00

Ah, sorry. I didn't realize the releases were out-or-order. 3.7.0 was indeed in June 27, 2018. But I still think asking my debugger to work for at least non-EoL versions is reasonable, and actually think it should also work for some still-widely-used EoL versions like 2.7 as well.

Luis Borbon 1 Reputation point

2022-10-14T23:17:08.677+00:00

this solved my issue. happy debugging!
Sign in to comment

Use comments to ask for clarification, additional information, or improvements to the question.
Mickey Cohen 6 Reputation points

2022-04-06T15:56:05.73+00:00

Click on the python extention (publisher microsoft) and select "install pre-release". It would be V2022.5.10961002 (you can see it when you hover with the mouse above the extension)

Fixed the problem for me.
Please sign in to rate this answer.

1 person found this answer helpful.

0 comments No comments
Sign in to comment

Use comments to ask for clarification, additional information, or improvements to the question.
Yuval Kuperberg 5 Reputation points

2023-01-31T08:24:41.5533333+00:00

Still happening in 2023... Switching python version didn't help, how is this still an issue??
Please sign in to rate this answer.

1 person found this answer helpful.

0 comments No comments
Sign in to comment

Use comments to ask for clarification, additional information, or improvements to the question.
Moritz Wolf 5 Reputation points

2024-09-18T13:22:43.64+00:00
I had the same issue in September 2024 and resolved it by

removing ./venv/ and ./.venv/ in my working directory

recreate the virtual environment

run my debug launch config specified in ./.vscode/launch.json (via F5)

redirect missing python interpreter path to the one specified in the venv
Please sign in to rate this answer.

1 person found this answer helpful.

0 comments No comments
Sign in to comment

Use comments to ask for clarification, additional information, or improvements to the question.

Share via

VS Code Debugger not working for python

9 additional answers

Your answer