Import Error: Symbol not found: _futimens with PyQT5 in macOS Sierra 10.12.6

Question

So, I'm trying to run a basic code:

from PyQt5.QtWidgets import QMainWindow, QPushButton, QApplication
import sys

class Example(QMainWindow):
    def __init__(self):
        super().__init__()
        btn = QPushButton("Hello World!", self)
        btn.move(50,75)
        self.setGeometry(100, 100, 200,150)
        self.setWindowTitle('PyQt Window')
        self.show()

if __name__ == '__main__':
    app = QApplication(sys.argv)
    ex = Example()
    sys.exit(app.exec_())

And this error keeps popping up:

ImportError: dlopen(/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.8/lib/python3.8/site-packages/PyQt5/QtWidgets.abi3.so, 2): Symbol not found: _futimens
  Referenced from: /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.8/lib/python3.8/site-packages/PyQt5/Qt/lib/QtCore.framework/Versions/5/QtCore (which was built for Mac OS X 10.13)
  Expected in: /usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib
 in /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.8/lib/python3.8/site-packages/PyQt5/Qt/lib/QtCore.framework/Versions/5/QtCore

I'm working on Python 3.8, and I installed PyQT5 with 'pip3 install pyqt5'. I tried with homebrew but it doesn't work because I have a super old version of macOS. So far, I've only worked with SQLite Studio at best, with no issues. (So, yeah, super beginner here). Any solutions?

Answer 1

The same problem occurred on MacOS 10.12.6 after I installed PyQt5-5.15.0, uninstall this version and downgrade to PyQt5-5.13.0, it works fine!

# on MacOS 10.12.6:
#
# this will install PyQt5-5.15.0 by default 
pip install PyQt5

#!!! not work !!!
# ImportError: PyQt5/QtGui.abi3.so, 2): Symbol not found: _futimens

# uninstall it
pip uninstall PyQt5

pip install PyQt5==5.13.0

# Works perfect now ;-)

Answer 2

I had a similar issue with pyqt today, i think that installing a previous version of pyqt maybe will help in your case:

First, starts with your code in a .py file (like demo.py). Then, run this commands to create a virtual environment and install pyqt version 5.13.0:

python3 -m venv myenv
. myenv/bin/activate
pip install PyQt5==5.13.0
python demo.py