# Help! Plots not loading

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/help-plots-not-loading/49941>\
**Category:** General Usage\
**Tags:** question, package, plotting, plots, gr\
**Created:** [November 10, 2020, 8:03pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/help-plots-not-loading/49941 "2020-11-10T20:03:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![brett\_knoss](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/brett_knoss/32/13050_2.png) [@brett\_knoss](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/brett_knoss)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2020, 8:03pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/help-plots-not-loading/49941/1 "2020-11-10T20:03:53Z")

</div>

I’m having trouble with the GR backend for Plots

```julia
 using Plots
[Info: Precompiling Plots [91a5bcdd-55d7-5caf-9e0b-520d859cae80]
Your GR installation is incomplete. Rerun build step for GR package.
ERROR: LoadError: LoadError: InitError: Evaluation into the closed module `GR` breaks incremental compilation because the side effects will not be permanent. This is likely due to some other module mutating `GR` with `eval` during precompilation - don't do this.

```

I tried

```julia
Pkg.build("GR")

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pdeffebach](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/pdeffebach/32/10320_2.png) [@pdeffebach](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/pdeffebach)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2020, 8:33pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/help-plots-not-loading/49941/2 "2020-11-10T20:33:38Z")

</div>

Start a new project and see if it works in a fresh environment?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![brett\_knoss](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/brett_knoss/32/13050_2.png) [@brett\_knoss](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/brett_knoss)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2020, 8:36pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/help-plots-not-loading/49941/3 "2020-11-10T20:36:19Z")

</div>

Is that done using ```  
Pkg.activate()

```julia
It wouldn't stop indexing that so I changed it, and now Plots won't work, and it still won't stop indexing.

How do I restore the default?
```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![brett\_knoss](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/brett_knoss/32/13050_2.png) [@brett\_knoss](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/brett_knoss)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2020, 8:37pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/help-plots-not-loading/49941/4 "2020-11-10T20:37:54Z")

</div>

I tried creating a new file, and restarting VS Code, I’m not sure I know what starting a project is.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pdeffebach](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/pdeffebach/32/10320_2.png) [@pdeffebach](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/pdeffebach)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2020, 8:39pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/help-plots-not-loading/49941/5 "2020-11-10T20:39:30Z")

</div>

1. Make a new folder with

```julia
julia> mkdir("test")

```

1. Go into that directory

```julia
julia> cd("test")

```

1. Activate the project

```julia
julia> import Pkg; Pkg.activate(".")

```

Then add `Plots` and see if it works.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![brett\_knoss](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/brett_knoss/32/13050_2.png) [@brett\_knoss](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/brett_knoss)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2020, 8:42pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/help-plots-not-loading/49941/6 "2020-11-10T20:42:16Z")

</div>

> [@pdeffebach](#):
>
> `Pkg.activate(".")`

Nope

 ![Screenshot (109)](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/original/3X/3/0/3077c298c050cc33890215d8756e6f390896061d.png)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pdeffebach](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/pdeffebach/32/10320_2.png) [@pdeffebach](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/pdeffebach)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2020, 8:43pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/help-plots-not-loading/49941/7 "2020-11-10T20:43:28Z")

</div>

I didn’t write `Pkg.activate("Plots")`. I wrote `Pkg.activate(".")`. Please read the instructions

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![brett\_knoss](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/brett_knoss/32/13050_2.png) [@brett\_knoss](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/brett_knoss)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2020, 8:47pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/help-plots-not-loading/49941/8 "2020-11-10T20:47:44Z")

</div>

> [@pdeffebach](#):
>
> ` cd("test")`

It won’t recognize makedir, and when I tried to change to an existing directory

```julia
cd("C:\Users\Brett\Documents\tutorialandests")

```

it says ERROR: syntax: invalid escape sequence

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pdeffebach](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/pdeffebach/32/10320_2.png) [@pdeffebach](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/pdeffebach)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2020, 8:48pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/help-plots-not-loading/49941/9 "2020-11-10T20:48:42Z")

</div>

apologies, i mean to write `mkdir`. It’s fixed.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pdeffebach](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/pdeffebach/32/10320_2.png) [@pdeffebach](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/pdeffebach)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2020, 8:49pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/help-plots-not-loading/49941/10 "2020-11-10T20:49:22Z")

</div>

You need to use `raw"filepath\with\backslashes` for working with file paths on windows.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![brett\_knoss](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/brett_knoss/32/13050_2.png) [@brett\_knoss](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/brett_knoss)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2020, 8:52pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/help-plots-not-loading/49941/11 "2020-11-10T20:52:10Z")

</div>

![Screenshot (110)](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/original/3X/9/7/970c9a1fc866bed02be6db480631b2ffa4873512.png)

No! Still Broken!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![brett\_knoss](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/brett_knoss/32/13050_2.png) [@brett\_knoss](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/brett_knoss)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2020, 8:54pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/help-plots-not-loading/49941/12 "2020-11-10T20:54:11Z")

</div>

ERROR: syntax: “/” is not a unary operator

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pdeffebach](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/pdeffebach/32/10320_2.png) [@pdeffebach](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/pdeffebach)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2020, 8:55pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/help-plots-not-loading/49941/13 "2020-11-10T20:55:57Z")

</div>

What version of Julia are you on?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![brett\_knoss](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/brett_knoss/32/13050_2.png) [@brett\_knoss](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/brett_knoss)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2020, 8:56pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/help-plots-not-loading/49941/14 "2020-11-10T20:56:37Z")

</div>

1.5.2 I’m downloading 1.5.3 now

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![brett\_knoss](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/brett_knoss/32/13050_2.png) [@brett\_knoss](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/brett_knoss)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2020, 9:52pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/help-plots-not-loading/49941/15 "2020-11-10T21:52:30Z")

</div>

I should have v1.5.3 set up.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![brett\_knoss](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/brett_knoss/32/13050_2.png) [@brett\_knoss](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/brett_knoss)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2020, 9:55pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/help-plots-not-loading/49941/16 "2020-11-10T21:55:09Z")

</div>

> [@pdeffebach](#):
>
> Pkg.activate(“.”)

I did that still get the same error:

 ![Screenshot (112)](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/original/3X/b/6/b6cd600b0bd36955ad163a0402b1b2b0b4d84539.png)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pdeffebach](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/pdeffebach/32/10320_2.png) [@pdeffebach](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/pdeffebach)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2020, 9:56pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/help-plots-not-loading/49941/17 "2020-11-10T21:56:06Z")

</div>

You should `] build Plots` again. But I don’t really know how to help beyond that.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![brett\_knoss](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/brett_knoss/32/13050_2.png) [@brett\_knoss](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/brett_knoss)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2020, 9:56pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/help-plots-not-loading/49941/18 "2020-11-10T21:56:37Z")

</div>

Pkg.build(“Plots”) ?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![brett\_knoss](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/brett_knoss/32/13050_2.png) [@brett\_knoss](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/brett_knoss)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2020, 9:58pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/help-plots-not-loading/49941/19 "2020-11-10T21:58:50Z")

</div>

It’s building GR, and that’s what was giving trouble, so that should be a good sign.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pdeffebach](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/pdeffebach/32/10320_2.png) [@pdeffebach](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/pdeffebach)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2020, 10:02pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/help-plots-not-loading/49941/20 "2020-11-10T22:02:41Z")

</div>

Yes

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