Directory/Drive mapping bug on ARM64 architectures (macOS Tahoe & Windows 11 ARM)

[oliveiravilar]

Dear Ville

I am reporting a directory and drive mapping issue encountered in version 5.1.2 when running on ARM64 architectures (specifically Apple Silicon M4 and Windows 11 ARM64). In version 5.1.2, the file explorer fails to populate drives or navigate through folders correctly, whereas version 5.1.1 remains fully functional on the same machines.
System Information:
• OS: macOS Tahoe (Mac Mini M4) and Windows 11 ARM64.
• Python Version: 3.12 (stable) and 3.13.
• DearEIS Version: 5.1.2 (Buggy) / 5.1.1 (Working).
• Architecture: ARM64.
Steps observed:
1. Install DearEIS 5.1.2 on an ARM64 machine.
2. Launch the application.
3. Attempt to open a data file or navigate directories.
4. Observation: The directory tree is empty or the drive selection is unresponsive.
Technical Context:
The issue seems to be related to the transition from the pyxdg library (used in 5.1.1) to xdg-base-dirs in version 5.1.2. On ARM64 systems, this new dependency appears to have trouble resolving environment variables or system paths, leading to an empty file explorer.
Workaround found:
Reverting to version 5.1.1 and manually installing pyxdg resolves the issue completely, restoring full access to folders and external drives.

best regards

Eudesio O. Vilar

Federal University of Campina Grande

[vyrjana]

Dear Eudesio,

That is strange.

First of all, DearEIS has never used pyxdg package. DearEIS has used the xdg package until recently. The xdg package has been deprecated for a while now and the new, maintained version is called xdg-base-dirs. The xdg-base-dirs package makes use of some language features only available in newer Python versions, which was why I stuck to xdg until I had some other reason to drop support for Python versions not supported by xdg-base-dirs. However, the core implementations of xdg and xdg-base-dirs seem to be essentially the same. Both xdg and xdg-base-dirs are also pure Python packages, so this issue doesn't arise from, e.g., differences in how binaries for xdg and xdg-base-dirs would be built for different platforms (since such binaries do not need to be built). So I'm not sure that the issue is actually caused by xdg-base-dirs.

Does the file browser never populate any directories and/or files regardless of where it is supposed to start in the filesystem? Or does it stop working when you navigate to a specific part of the filesystem? If the latter, then how does that part of the filesystem differ from the working parts? Have you tried starting DearEIS from the terminal and different working directories?

The code related to discovering directories and files in DearEIS doesn't follow symbolic links nor does it walk a filesystem recursively, so it shouldn't end up in an infinite loop because of an unfortunate symlink either.

Have you tried running DearEIS in a way that you can see if it prints anything to the terminal? Have you tried running DearEIS in debug mode (i.e., via the deareis-debug command instead of just deareis) to see if any useful additional information might show up in the terminal (e.g., where in the stack of function calls there might be an issue)?

Which Python version did you use with the latest version of DearEIS? You listed 3.12 and 3.13 but was that for DearEIS 5.1.1 and 5.1.2, respectively, or did you try DearEIS 5.1.2 on both Python 3.12 and Python 3.13?

Best regards,
Ville

[oliveiravilar]

Dear Ville,

Sorry, but I made a mistake and wrote ‘pyxdg’ instead of ‘xdg’. The Version 5.1.1 of Deareis works perfectly on the ARM64 platform, whether on a Mac or a Windows 11 computer, when installed with Python 3.12 or 3.13. However, when updating to deareis 5.1.2 (Python 3.13, MacOS and Windows 11 on virtual environment) the following issue occurred: when running the program from the terminal in the root directory and creating a new project, the 'Data Set' button became unresponsive. In other words, it failed to map any drives or any system folders – this occurred on both the Mac and Windows platforms.

I did not, however, attempt to run deareis 5.1.2 in debug mode, so I cannot provide more precise information. Following a general system clean-up, I can now run version 5.1.1 normally in a virtual environment (MacOS and Windows, venv) created by Python 3.12.But I hope to start using the new version 5.1.2 soon.

best regards,
Eudesio

[vyrjana]

After some testing I have narrowed down the cause of the issue to version 2.3 of DearPyGui (DPG).

I encountered strange triggering of keybindings without user input in various contexts. For example, repeated navigation up one level in the directory structure in the file dialog window immediately after the window opens when trying to load a project file. It also seems to affect various tabs of an open project (e.g., attempts to navigate to a different result or plot). Downgrading to DPG 2.2 fixed these issues.

The setup.py file for DearEIS limits the version of DPG to versions older than 2.x (i.e., version 1.11 at the moment) for Python 3.12 and older (because there are no builds for DPG 1.11 for newer Python versions on PyPI). Therefore, installing DearEIS 5.1.2 in a Python 3.11 or 3.12 virtual environment also does not have these issues.

I'll publish a temporary fix soon as version 5.1.3. The only change will be that the version of DPG is pinned to 2.2. I'll then try to figure out a minimal example for reproducing the issue and file a bug report to the DearPyGui repository.

EDIT: I just checked the timeline for the release of DearPyGui 2.3. and it was released a few days after DearEIS 5.1.2, which would explain why I didn't notice these issues when testing 5.1.2 just prior to releasing it.

[oliveiravilar]

Dear Ville, version 5.1.3 is working perfectly. Thanks. I will soon be submitting a manuscript titled “Synergistic Effect of NbN-Graphene/Carbon Nanofiber Coatings in Mitigating Sulfation on Lead-Acid Battery Negative Grids” to *Nature.Energy (Springer)*. All results were obtained using the DearEIS.5.1.1, referenced as follows: (github.com/vyrjana/DearEIS). Is there a more appropriate way to cite this? Best regards Eudesio ***@***.***

…

On 28 Apr 2026, at 14:01, Ville Yrjänä ***@***.***> wrote: vyrjana left a comment (vyrjana/DearEIS#30) <#30 (comment)> After some testing I have narrowed down the cause of the issue to version 2.3 of DearPyGui (DPG). I encountered strange triggering of keybindings without user input in various contexts. For example, repeated navigation up one level in the directory structure in the file dialog window immediately after the window opens when trying to load a project file. It also seems to affect various tabs of an open project (e.g., attempts to navigate to a different result or plot). Downgrading to DPG 2.2 fixed these issues. The setup.py file for DearEIS limits the version of DPG to versions older than 2.x (i.e., version 1.11 at the moment) for Python 3.12 and older (because there are no builds for DPG 1.11 for newer Python versions on PyPI). Therefore, installing DearEIS 5.1.2 in a Python 3.11 or 3.12 virtual environment also does not have these issues. I'll publish a temporary fix soon as version 5.1.3. The only change will be that the version of DPG is pinned to 2.2. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#30 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/BAPYLRGQBZJ2OKZ4UOBAT2T4YDPVFAVCNFSM6AAAAACYHCCASWVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHM2DGMZXGQ2DENZQGA>. Triage notifications on the go with GitHub Mobile for iOS <https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1477376905?ct=notification-email&mt=8&pt=524675> or Android <https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.github.android&referrer=utm_campaign%3Dnotification-email%26utm_medium%3Demail%26utm_source%3Dgithub>. You are receiving this because you authored the thread.

[vyrjana]

I'm glad to hear that the latest version is working on your end as well.

You can cite this article about DearEIS published via the Journal of Open Source Software:

Yrjänä, V., (2022). DearEIS - A GUI program for analyzing impedance spectra. Journal of Open Source Software, 7(80), 4808, https://doi.org/10.21105/joss.04808

I should add that information to the README.md file, the online and PDF documentation, and probably also as a How to cite window accessible via the Help menu in the file/top bar in the program itself.

For future reference, some GitHub repositories (such as this one for DearEIS) may have a "Cite this repository" button on the sidebar on the right-hand side. However, the author/maintainer has to add a CITATION.cff file to the repository for that button to show up. That button can then provide the suggested way of citing the repository.