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Viewing environments

To view your environments, select Environments from the left-hand navigation.

You can collapse and expand the environments list by clicking on the or icon beside the environments list.

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Searching for an environment

Use the Search Environments box to locate an environment by name. Enter all (or part of) an environment’s name to filter the list to display only environments that contain the .

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Managing environments

Anaconda Navigator provides a set of buttons at the bottom of the environments list to help you manage environments.

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Creating a new environment

  1. Click Create at the bottom of the environments list.

  2. In the Create new environment dialog, enter a descriptive name for the new environment.

    The location where your new environment will be created displays below the New environment name box as it is being entered.

  3. Select either Python or R as the language for your environment.

  4. Open the dropdown and select a version for your interpreter.

  5. Click Create.

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Activating and using an environment

  1. Click on an environment in the list to activate it.

  2. Click the button beside the environment’s name to open the activation options dropdown.

    Some activation options require additional packages to be installed in the environment.

    OptionDescriptionRequired packages
    TerminalOpens a shell session (bash, cmd, or PowerShell, depending on OS) with the environment activated. Use it for CLI tools or shell commands.None
    Python interpreterLaunches the standard python REPL inside the environment. Useful for quick checks or running scripts.None
    IPython ConsoleStarts an enhanced interactive Python shell.ipython
    Jupyter NotebookOpens Jupyter Notebook in your default browser, letting you create and run notebook files.notebook

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Cloning an environment

Anaconda strongly recommends against cloning the base environment because the process can generate an incomplete clone of the environment, which could cause errors while using Navigator or conda. For these reasons, Anaconda Navigator does not allow you to clone your base environment.

  1. Activate the environment you want to clone by selecting it from the environments list.
  2. Click Clone at the bottom of the environments list.
  3. Enter a descriptive name for the new environment.
  4. Click Clone.

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Importing an environment

There are two situations in which you might want to import an environment:

  • Someone has exported their environment to a environment.yml file and shared it with you, and you want to reproduce their environment on your machine.
  • You have backed up an environment (either locally or to Anaconda.com), and you want to restore it to the backed up state.

If someone has shared an environment.yml file with you, or you have backed up an environment locally:

  1. Save it somewhere on your computer.

  2. Click Import at the bottom of the environments list.

  3. Select Local drive.

  4. Click the folder beside Local drive.

  5. Browse your local files and select the .yml file you want to import.

  6. Enter a new name for the new environment (or use the existing name).

    Environment names must be unique. To overwrite an existing environment with the same name, select the Overwrite existing environment checkbox.

  7. Click Import.

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Backing up an environment

Backing up an environment to Anaconda.com protects it from machine malfunctions, such as hard-drive failure, while local backups are valuable for restoring your environment to a previous working state (in case you encounter a package-dependency issue).

Anaconda Navigator provides two ways to back up an environment:

  1. Click on an environment in the list to activate it.
  2. Click Backup at the bottom of the environments list.

  1. Select Local drive.

  2. Click Save.

  3. Enter a descriptive name for your backup. By default, backups are named <ENV_NAME>_YYYYMMDD.yml.

    Environment names must be unique. To overwrite an existing environment with the same name, select the Overwrite existing environment checkbox.

  4. Choose a location on your computer to save the environment backup file.

  5. Click Save.

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Removing an environment

You can use Navigator to remove environments that are stored locally on your computer. Environments that you have backed up to Anaconda.com must be removed from your Anaconda.com Account Settings.

  1. Click on an environment in the list to activate it.

  2. Click Remove at the bottom of the environments list.

  3. Click Remove.