FIX: I fixed it! turns out i didn't completely remove vscode from my pc, so i deleted the config and cache folders and reinstalled vscode and it works perfectly now! still curious as to what the hell caused it...
at the bottom left of vscode it keeps saying "Python extension loading" and it never finishes, i tried reinstalling all the extensions, updating vscode, rebooting the system, and disabling the other extensions one by one, but to no avail.
it was working fine before, any help would be appreciated!
EDIT: im using linux (kubuntu 20.04) and i can't do anything python related (run scripts, formatters not working...etc)
Recently updated my laptop, and after installing VS Code and Python on the new machine, I've noticed that the Python extension takes forever to load any time VS Code is (re)started. I haven't timed it exactly, but probably at least a minute or more, just to load an extension on a 'gaming' laptop with oodles (technical term!) of RAM, disk space, and processor power to spare.
Nothing particularly exotic as far as extensions loaded - Python (obviously), Pylance, Jupyter, Remote - WSL, Vim, Visual Studio Intellicode and vs-code icons. Even with everything disabled but Python, Pylance and Jupyter, it doesn't change - and the extension very obviously holding things up is the Python one.
Nothing too exotic about the Python install... vanilla 3.8.6, from python.org, using virtualenvs for development. Even with the base install, and nothing much beyond pylint, black and virtualenvwrapper-win installed via pip... this seems really, really, really odd.
Any ideas?
Videos
I'm having a problem where the python extension has a very long loading time. I've tried unistalling and reinstalling but that hasn't worked. Any advice on what to do?
All of a sudden after the new update, the VSCode Python Extension refuses to load when opening my folder that contains a virtual environment. I am new to using virtual environments, but never had this trouble before now. Just curious if anyone else has dealt with this issue before and has any idea what I can do to fix it. Thanks in advance!
I'm starting to mess around with python again in my free time and I'm having issues with the python extension. I only have 3 extensions installed. C#, PowerShell, & Python. All from Microsoft. I've uninstalled/reinstalled VS Code. I'm running 3.8.5 python.
When I try to add python (control + shift + p) it spins at loading the extension and comes back with reload, wait, or cancel. If you hit wait afew times, it will eventually load the python extension. The machine is an i7 4xxx, 32 gb of ram, ssd, ect.... I'm seeing no CPU, RAM, or Disk spikes during this time.
Has anyone seen anything like this before? Is there anything in the event viewer log that would help?
*** EDIT ***
I also tried it with the other extensions disabled.
Recently I installed the python extension in my vscode. But the python extension is loading forever, I tried reinstalling, but it didn't fix my issue. I am using a M1 mac.
Hello, I have no idea if it's correct to post this here, but I have been searching for solution for days without any result and I'm losing it.
I'm facing a problem where the VS code keeps refreshing the virtual environments none stop without being able to recognize the one in the python project I'm working on. Therefore, the language server (Pylance) isn't working as well, and the whole python language isn't working in the VS code because it keeps loading (even in the projects that has no venv).
The exact flow of incidents from when I open the VS code:
A cmd window flashes before me, sometimes it lasts for 1 or 2 seconds. Then the VS code keep refreshing for venv without being able to locate it and everything freezes.
Here's what I tried to do to solve the problem:
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Deleting all python extensions and their files then reinstalling them (works only for few hours then the problem returns)
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upgrading/downgrading python, python extensions.
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changing the python locator in VSC settings from native to js (solved the problem for few weeks then it suddenly returned back and this solution no longer works)
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reloading the windows and clearing workspaces cache.
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Clearing VSC cache files in the %appdata% (which solves the problem only until I close the VSC and reopen it again)
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restarting the language (python) server (An error message appears: can't find the language server)
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reinstalling python, VS code, the extensions again and again ...
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adding python PATH installations to the user and system variable environments and making sure there is no duplicates.
Is there anyone who knows at least where the problem lies? note that I don't want to hard code the venv paths because I have so many projects that I'm working on in parallel so it's not so practical for me.
Hi! I'm new to using VS code. Before this I was using Spyder and found that VS code to be more complicated (for me). Please do recommend me necessary extension :D
The issue from April is back and even fresh installs of VSC + python do not solve it.
I have a virtualbox VM, and this vm shares a folder with my actual pc. This folder is what contains all the code. I have vscode on my actual pc to edit that folder's contents, but the code runs on the VM.
The VM is ubuntu 20.04, my actual pc is Windows 10, and the VM's python version is 3.8.10
yesterday, vscode suddenly started crashing. The icon turned into the default windows exe file icon, and whenever I close it, an error window appears. Back then I didn't think much of it, but on second thought, I should have saved that error message. Anyways, I thought that reinstalling vscode would work. After reinstalling, my old extensions are already installed for some reason, but they aren't working. The highlighting and autocomplete functions aren't working, and would display "Loading..." when I hover over stuff:
the field names should be blue, the "models." stuff should be green, and it should not say "Loading..."I found a stackoverflow post with a similar issue: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/50389852/visual-studio-code-intellisense-not-working
The post doesn't seem to have a solution, but I tried most of their suggestions. I tried reinstalling the extensions, changing them to pre-release, uninstalling pylance, etc. to no avail. Some replies talked about the path to the python executable, but I feel like that doesn't really apply in my case, since even though I have python on my actual pc, all the code is ran by the python executable on the VM. In any case, I still selected an interpreter at the bottom right of the screen.
Here are my current extensions:
Here is my current settings.json:
A friend suggested looking at the logs for python language server, and there indeed seems to be an error every time I open vscode, though I'm not sure what's causing this:
at the end of my ropes here, so any help is greatly appreciated. Please let me know if you need more information.
Please update the python extension to the latest version

or install the pre-release version directly. ( may be more useful to you )

this will basically solve your problem.
If the error continues, follow these steps:
- Uninstall Python extension (if you have pylance uninstall it first). Uninstall any other extension that is failing.
- Close all instances of VS Code.
- Go to, %USERPROFILE%/.vscode/extensions (on windows) or ~/.vscode/extensions on Linux/Mac.
- Delete any folder with the name starting with ms-python.python*
- Start VS Code, and install Python extension (also pylance if you uninstalled it in step 1).
I was having this issue and tried the above answer and it still didn't work. It turns out I hadn't installed python on my system yet. I didn't realize because I normally use it remotely.
From the VSCode documentation:
Quick start
- Step 1. Install a supported version of Python on your system (note: that the system install of Python on macOS is not supported).
- Step 2. Install the Python extension for Visual Studio Code.
- Step 3. Open or create a Python file and start coding!
Hi everyone, can you share some of the VS Code extensions you use to improve your coding experience? I know the most common extensions, like Prettier, BetterComments and SpellChecker, but I'm sure there are some hidden gems out there, hope you can help me find some! Thank you all
I just learned about autoDocstring last night and I'm blown away how nice this extension is. It makes creating docstrings so much easier and automated. Personally, I'm a fan of Google's style for docstrings so that's what I've set my default to when generating docstrings!
Another favorite extension of mine is this linter: Ruff. However, it is a bit buggy in that it duplicates functions at the bottom of the file, but other than that I love it!
Lastly, this is not an extension, but I love the Black library and auto-saving my .py files with this formatting provider in VSCODE.
I'm curious what this communities' favorite extensions are that make coding in Python easier or automated?
Hey guys!! I am new to python.. Started learning python like a week ago on vscode.... suggest me some extensions for python in vscode. Also suggest some extensions to make vs code look good..
First and foremost install PyLance in VSCode, Also if you want coding in Python to be more restrictive and 'stylized', you must install a linter. There are plenty. But my recommendation is flake8.
You can install flake8 with pip (python package installer).
For the Vscode itself, try install some themes, like One Dark Pro, for QoL improvements try enabling "Bracket Color Pair" somewhere in the settings, that should make brackets in Dictionaries more readable also other brackets aswell, like nested functions.
I think you just need to install python extension and more packages and extensions will be suggested by vscode itself. You can refer to the document for more silky and ultimate experience.
Suggestions for extensions that help in general and not just with Python, are also welcome.
Been using vscode for a while now with everything working perfectly. Started it up today and the python extension loading wonโt seem to complete.
Anyone know whatโs up?
Please have a look at this issue: Python extension loads very slowly: unresponsive. Try insiders version of the extension, and see if it helps with this issue. You can always download and install latest insiders build form here https://pvsc.blob.core.windows.net/extension-builds/ms-python-insiders.vsix .
I have recently ran into the same issue. I am not sure if you are utilizing the jupyter notebook like functionality of running line by line in the editor (which would run the code in the terminal window at the bottom), but the last couple days using that has been very slow. It used to be instant, and now even a simple test = 'test' line takes 3 seconds for it to process and run.
I do not understand why I am getting the big red Xs that are shown here. This is from a pyproject.toml.
The pattern of green check mark versus red X is what I would expect if I had listed the dependency versions with "=" instead of ">=".
dependency-groups shown in VSCode
Screen shot at: https://jeffrey.goldmark.org/uploads/not-imgur/2025-06-10-vs-code-pyproject.png
Version information
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Visual Studio Code: 1.100.3
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ms.python.python extension: 2025.6.1
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macOS: 15.5
I do have lots of other VSCode extensions installed, so I don't know if any of those are responsible. But before I go around disabling extensions to figure that out, I would like to know if this is a known issue.
Resolution (of sorts)
The extension that is doing this is dependi, and the behavior I am seeing might be "as designed". It appears that I may have misunderstood what the red X is about.