Error When Using Pyinstaller: Unicodedecodeerror: 'utf-8' Codec Can't Decode Byte 0xff

I have an issue when i compile a PyQt code with pyinstaller. I use this line to compile: c:\Anaconda3\Scripts\pyinstaller.exe -y -F --distpath='.' MyQt.py then I get this error me

Solution 1:

I found an answer on another forum. I change the line number 369 in the Python\Lib\site-packages\Pyinstaller\compat.py file:

out = out.decode(encoding)

to

out = out.decode(encoding, errors='ignore')

or

out = out.decode(encoding, "replace")

Now I can compile my script without any issue. I still don't know why my issue happened in the first place but at least that compiles now.

Solution 2:

The answer still works 2 years later BUT the line changed from 368 to 428.

Solution 3:

In the newest version (3.5) , the line moved slightly to 427.

The best thing to do is to search for

out = out.decode(encoding)

and replace it with

out = out.decode(encoding, "replace")

I don't understand why they do not fix this annoying problem!

Solution 4:

Changing compat.py works for me: out = out.decode(encoding, "replace")

This is a known problem on pyinstaller and the developers are working on it. https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller/pull/3895

I hope this bug will solved on the next update.

Solution 5:

The error is fixed since Version 4.0

pip install "pyinstaller>=4.0.0"