I apologize if this is a noob question, but: Starting this week, I have been unable to import matplotlib through Spyder. I have not had this issue before.

I am using a MacBook running MacOS 15.3.1 and an ARM M2 chip. This error was on Python 3.11

Updating matplotlib, Spyder, and python did not help.

The code I ran was literally just: import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

Here is the error I received. I have replaced all instances of my username with "[NAME]".

Note that /Users/[NAME]/anaconda3/lib/python3.11/site-packages/PIL/_imaging.cpython-311-darwin.so exists.

What is causing this error and how do I fix it?

%runfile /Users/[NAME]/anaconda3/lib/python3.11/http/untitled2.py --wdir
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
ImportError                               Traceback (most recent call last)
File ~/anaconda3/lib/python3.11/site-packages/spyder_kernels/customize/utils.py:209, in exec_encapsulate_locals(code_ast, globals, locals, exec_fun, filename)
    207     if filename is None:
    208         filename = "<stdin>"
--> 209     exec_fun(compile(code_ast, filename, "exec"), globals, None)
    210 finally:
    211     if use_locals_hack:
    212         # Cleanup code

File ~/anaconda3/lib/python3.11/http/untitled2.py:9
      1 #!/usr/bin/env python3
      2 # -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
      3 """
      4 Created on Sat Mar 15 15:12:11 2025
      5 
      6 @author: [NAME]
      7 """
----> 9 import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

File ~/anaconda3/lib/python3.11/site-packages/matplotlib/__init__.py:161
    157 from packaging.version import parse as parse_version
    159 # cbook must import matplotlib only within function
    160 # definitions, so it is safe to import from it here.
--> 161 from . import _api, _version, cbook, _docstring, rcsetup
    162 from matplotlib._api import MatplotlibDeprecationWarning
    163 from matplotlib.rcsetup import cycler  # noqa: F401

File ~/anaconda3/lib/python3.11/site-packages/matplotlib/rcsetup.py:28
     26 from matplotlib.backends import BackendFilter, backend_registry
     27 from matplotlib.cbook import ls_mapper
---> 28 from matplotlib.colors import Colormap, is_color_like
     29 from matplotlib._fontconfig_pattern import parse_fontconfig_pattern
     30 from matplotlib._enums import JoinStyle, CapStyle

File ~/anaconda3/lib/python3.11/site-packages/matplotlib/colors.py:52
     49 from numbers import Real
     50 import re
---> 52 from PIL import Image
     53 from PIL.PngImagePlugin import PngInfo
     55 import matplotlib as mpl

File ~/anaconda3/lib/python3.11/site-packages/PIL/Image.py:84
     75 MAX_IMAGE_PIXELS = int(1024 * 1024 * 1024 // 4 // 3)
     78 try:
     79     # If the _imaging C module is not present, Pillow will not load.
     80     # Note that other modules should not refer to _imaging directly;
     81     # import Image and use the Image.core variable instead.
     82     # Also note that Image.core is not a publicly documented interface,
     83     # and should be considered private and subject to change.
---> 84     from . import _imaging as core
     86     if __version__ != getattr(core, "PILLOW_VERSION", None):
     87         msg = (
     88             "The _imaging extension was built for another version of Pillow or PIL:\n"
     89             f"Core version: {getattr(core, 'PILLOW_VERSION', None)}\n"
     90             f"Pillow version: {__version__}"
     91         )

ImportError: dlopen(/Users/[NAME]/anaconda3/lib/python3.11/site-packages/PIL/_imaging.cpython-311-darwin.so, 0x0002): Library not loaded: @rpath/libtiff.5.dylib
  Referenced from: <B3C0C665-A4DE-3282-A587-6B0B5F8FD71C> /Users/[NAME]/anaconda3/lib/python3.11/site-packages/PIL/_imaging.cpython-311-darwin.so
  Reason: tried: '/Users/[NAME]/anaconda3/lib/python3.11/site-packages/PIL/../../../libtiff.5.dylib' (no such file), '/Users/[NAME]/anaconda3/lib/python3.11/site-packages/PIL/../../../libtiff.5.dylib' (no such file), '/Users/[NAME]/anaconda3/bin/../lib/libtiff.5.dylib' (no such file), '/Users/[NAME]/anaconda3/bin/../lib/libtiff.5.dylib' (no such file), '/usr/local/lib/libtiff.5.dylib' (no such file), '/usr/lib/libtiff.5.dylib' (no such file, not in dyld cache)```