Error: Could not find or load the Qt platform plugin “windows” - PyQt + Pyinstaller

Question

I am trying to bundle a PyQt project using Pyinstaller. I tried creating package using command pyinstaller --onedir Hello.py.

This creates dist folder and h

Answer 1

I wrote a similar answer to the same question as I have been struggling with this issue too. Just like you I tried to set the environment path and copy the folder (which worked but again it has to be done manually. If you look at the top of your generated .spec file you'll see mode: python so that gave me an idea as you can see below:

# -*- mode: python ; coding: utf-8 -*-

block_cipher = None

pf_foldr='C:\\Users\\Gabryxx7\\anaconda3\\envs\\\\Library\\plugins\\platforms\\'

a = Analysis(['C:\\Users\\Gabryxx7\\PycharmProjects\\\\program.py'],
             pathex=['C:\\Users\\Gabryxx7\\PycharmProjects\\\\'],
             binaries=[(pf_foldr+'qwindows.dll', 'platforms\\qwindows.dll'),
             (pf_foldr+'qdirect2d.dll', 'platforms\\qdirect.dll'),
             (pf_foldr+'qoffscreen.dll', 'platforms\\qoffscreen.dll'),
             (pf_foldr+'qwebgl.dll', 'platforms\\qwebgl.dll')
             ],
             datas=[],
             hiddenimports=['GUI', 'API', 'Threading', 'ssl', 'pyodbc'],
             hookspath=[],
             runtime_hooks=[],
             excludes=[],
             win_no_prefer_redirects=False,
             win_private_assemblies=False,
             cipher=block_cipher,
             noarchive=False)
pyz = PYZ(a.pure, a.zipped_data,
             cipher=block_cipher)
exe = EXE(pyz,
          a.scripts,
          a.binaries,
          a.zipfiles,
          a.datas,
          [],
          name='programName',
          debug=False,
          bootloader_ignore_signals=False,
          strip=False,
          upx=True,
          upx_exclude=[],
          runtime_tmpdir=None,
          console=True ) # False to avoid the console

This is a sample for a --one-file spec. As it says on the docs: https://pyinstaller.readthedocs.io/en/stable/spec-files.html

In one-file mode, there is no call to COLLECT, and the EXE instance receives all of the scripts, modules and binaries.

While for the binaries, each binary should be a tuple with two values:

The first string specifies the file or files as they are in this system now. The second specifies the name of the folder to contain the files at run-time.