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Troubleshooting Plotly Chart Not Showing in Jupyter Notebook and Jupyter Lab

Are you a data scientist who loves working with Jupyter Notebooks or Jupyter Lab? If so, you might be familiar with Plotly, a powerful and versatile library for creating interactive plots and dashboards. However, you might have also encountered the frustrating issue of Plotly charts not showing up in your Jupyter environment. In this blog post, we’ll discuss some common reasons for this problem and provide solutions to help you get your charts back on track, whether you’re using Jupyter Notebook or Jupyter Lab.
By Saturn Cloud | | Miscellaneous | Updated:

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction to Plotly and Jupyter Enviornments
  2. Common Reasons for Plotly Charts Not Showing
  3. Solutions to Fix Plotly Charts Not Showing in Jupyter Notebook
  4. Troubleshooting Plotly in Jupyter Lab
  5. Conclusion

1. Introduction to Plotly and Jupyter Notebook

Plotly is an open-source Python graphing library that allows you to create interactive and visually appealing charts with ease. It is compatible with a variety of platforms, including Jupyter Notebook and Jupyter Lab, popular web-based interfaces for interactive computing and data visualization.

Jupyter Notebook and Jupyter Lab enable you to create and share documents containing live code, equations, visualizations, and narrative text. This makes them ideal tools for data scientists who need to analyze, visualize, and communicate their findings. However, sometimes Plotly charts may not show up in these Jupyter environments, which can be frustrating and time-consuming to troubleshoot.

2. Common Reasons for Plotly Charts Not Showing

- Jupyter Notebook common reasons:

There are several reasons why your Plotly chart might not be showing up in your Jupyter Notebook, including:

  1. The notebook renderer is not enabled.
  2. Outdated Plotly or Jupyter packages.
  3. Browser compatibility issues or problematic browser extensions.
  4. Missing or incorrect use of plotly.offline.init_notebook_mode.
  5. The kernel is not running or has become unresponsive.

Jupyter Lab common reasons:

Few additional reasons why Plotly charts may not show up in Jupyter Lab include:

  1. Incorrect JupyterLab extension: The jupyterlab-plotly extension is required to display Plotly charts in Jupyter Lab. If you are not using this extension, or if it is not installed correctly, your charts will not show up.
  2. JupyterLab renderer: Jupyter Lab uses a different renderer than Jupyter Notebook to display charts. If the JupyterLab renderer is not configured correctly, your Plotly charts may not show up.
  3. JupyterLab version: Jupyter Lab is still under active development, and there may be bugs in certain versions that can prevent Plotly charts from displaying.

3. Solutions to Fix Plotly Charts Not Showing in Jupyter Notebook

In this section, we’ll explore various solutions to address the common reasons for Plotly charts not showing up in Jupyter Notebook.

3.1. Enable Notebook Renderer

One common reason for Plotly charts not appearing in Jupyter Notebook is that the notebook renderer is not enabled. To enable it, you need to run the following command in a Jupyter Notebook cell:

import plotly.io as pio
pio.renderers.default = 'notebook'

This sets the default renderer to 'notebook', which should make your Plotly charts visible. Make sure to run this code before creating any Plotly charts in your notebook.

3.2. Update Plotly and Jupyter Packages

Outdated packages may cause compatibility issues and prevent your Plotly charts from displaying. To update Plotly and Jupyter packages, run the following commands in your terminal:

pip install --upgrade plotly
pip install --upgrade notebook

After updating, restart your Jupyter Notebook and try displaying your chart again.

3.3. Check Your Browser and Extensions

Browser compatibility issues or browser extensions may interfere with the rendering of Plotly charts in Jupyter Notebook. To rule out browser-related issues, try the following:

  1. Use a different web browser, such as Chrome or Firefox, to open your Jupyter Notebook.
  2. Disable browser extensions, especially those related to ad blocking or JavaScript blocking, and reload your notebook.

3.4. Use plotly.offline.init_notebook_mode

If you are using an older version of Plotly (prior to version 4.0), you may need to use the plotly.offline.init_notebook_mode function to enable the display of your charts. Add the following code to a Jupyter Notebook cell and run it before creating any charts:

import plotly.offline as pyo
pyo.init_notebook_mode(connected=True)

This initializes the offline mode in Plotly, allowing charts to be displayed in your notebook.

3.5. Restart Your Kernel

A stalled or unresponsive kernel can prevent your Plotly charts from showing up in your Jupyter Notebook. Restarting the kernel can often resolve this issue. To restart your kernel, click on the “Kernel” menu in the Jupyter Notebook toolbar and select “Restart”.

4. Solutions to Fix Plotly Charts Not Showing in Jupyter Lab

Here are some solutions to fix Plotly charts not showing up in Jupyter Lab:

4.1. install the jupyterlab-plotly extension

If you are not using the jupyterlab-plotly extension, you can install it with the following command:

pip install jupyterlab-plotly

4.2. Restart Jupyter Lab

Once you have installed the jupyterlab-plotly extension, restart Jupyter Lab to make sure that it is loaded correctly.

4.3. Check the JupyterLab renderer

To check the JupyterLab renderer, click on the “Settings” icon in the Jupyter Lab toolbar and select “Advanced Settings Editor”. In the “Advanced Settings Editor” search for the renderer setting. The value of this setting should be plotly. If it is not, change it to plotly and click on the “Save” button.

4.4. Update Jupyter Lab

If you are using an older version of Jupyter Lab, there may be bugs that are preventing Plotly charts from displaying. Try updating Jupyter Lab to the latest version to see if this resolves the issue.

4. Conclusion

In this blog post, we’ve covered some common reasons why Plotly charts may not show up in Jupyter Notebook and Jupyter Lab. Whether you’re working in Jupyter Notebook or Jupyter Lab, encountering the issue of invisible Plotly charts can be frustrating.

For Jupyter Notebook, we’ve discussed enabling the notebook renderer, updating essential packages, checking your browser and extensions, using plotly.offline.init_notebook_mode, and restarting the kernel as effective solutions.

When working in Jupyter Lab, we’ve explored additional troubleshooting steps such as installing the jupyterlab-plotly extension, ensuring the JupyterLab renderer is correctly configured, and keeping Jupyter Lab up to date.

By following these solutions, you’ll be equipped to resolve Plotly visibility issues in your Jupyter environment, whether you prefer Notebook or Lab. With your charts back on track, you can confidently create stunning and interactive visualizations with Plotly in your data analysis journey. Happy plotting!

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