I’m working on building a Discord bot using Python and keep running into this annoying error. When I try to execute my bot code, everything seems fine until it hits the run command. Then I get a RuntimeError about not being able to close a running event loop.
import discord
bot = discord.Client()
@bot.event
async def on_message(msg):
# ignore messages from the bot itself
if msg.author == bot.user:
return
if msg.content.startswith('!greet'):
response = 'Hey there {0.author.mention}'.format(msg)
await bot.send_message(msg.channel, response)
@bot.event
async def on_ready():
print('Bot is online')
print(bot.user.name)
print(bot.user.id)
print('------')
bot.run('my_token_here')
The error message shows:
RuntimeError: Cannot close a running event loop
All the other parts of my code work perfectly, but without that final run line the bot never actually connects to Discord servers. I tried looking at similar posts but the solutions don’t seem to match my specific problem. Has anyone dealt with this before? What’s causing the event loop to stay active when it shouldn’t be?
Your Discord bot is encountering a RuntimeError: Cannot close a running event loop when you execute it using the bot.run() command. The bot connects successfully without this line, but the bot.run() command is necessary for the bot to connect to Discord and respond to messages. This suggests a conflict between your bot’s event loop and another process or environment.
TL;DR: The Quick Fix:
The most likely cause is a conflict between the discord.py event loop and another event loop running in your environment, possibly within your IDE (Integrated Development Environment) or due to running the bot script multiple times. The simplest solution is to update your discord.py library and ensure you are running your bot from a clean environment.
Understanding the “Why” (The Root Cause):
The RuntimeError: Cannot close a running event loop error arises when you attempt to shut down an asyncio event loop that’s already active or in use by another part of your program. discord.py uses asyncio for its asynchronous operations (handling messages, connections, etc.). If another process (your IDE, a separate Python script, etc.) also initializes an asyncio loop, you have a conflict: Discord’s loop tries to start, interacts with the existing loop, and then throws the error when it’s trying to shut down. Your code itself is correct but the environment is flawed.
Step-by-Step Guide:
Update discord.py: Ensure you are using the latest version of the library. Outdated versions may have compatibility issues with newer asyncio implementations. Use the following command in your terminal:
pip install --upgrade discord.py
Run from Command Line: Avoid running your bot code directly from an IDE like PyCharm, VS Code, or Jupyter Notebook. Instead, use your system’s terminal or command prompt to execute the script. IDE’s often have their own internal event loops that clash with the discord.py loop.
Restart your Python Interpreter: Close your current Python interpreter completely and restart it before running the bot. This ensures that no leftover processes from previous runs interfere with the bot’s launch.
Upgrade to discord.Bot() or commands.Bot(): The original code uses the deprecated discord.Client(). Update to the newer and more feature-rich discord.Bot() or commands.Bot(), depending on whether you are using the discord.ext.commands framework:
import discord
from discord.ext import commands #If using commands framework
intents = discord.Intents.default()
intents.message_content = True
#Use commands.Bot if you are using the commands framework; discord.Bot otherwise
bot = commands.Bot(command_prefix='!', intents=intents) #Or discord.Bot(intents=intents)
#Rest of your code...
bot.run('my_token_here')
(Advanced) Check for Asynchronous Conflicts: If the above steps don’t resolve the issue, systematically review other parts of your code for potential conflicts involving asyncio. Make sure you only have one instance of an event loop being started at any given time. Consider using asyncio.get_event_loop() to check if an event loop is already running before trying to create a new one.
Common Pitfalls & What to Check Next:
Incorrect Bot Token: Double-check your bot token. An invalid token will prevent connection and may lead to the error indirectly.
Network Connectivity: Make sure your system has a stable internet connection. Discord requires active internet access for the bot to function.
Multiple Bot Instances: Ensure you’re not running the same bot script in multiple places at the same time (multiple terminals, etc.).
Permissions: Verify that the bot account has the necessary permissions in the Discord server to send messages.
Still running into issues? Share your (sanitized) config files, the exact command you ran, and any other relevant details. The community is here to help!
I experienced a similar issue with my Discord bot when using Jupyter notebooks. The RuntimeError occurs because Jupyter has its own event loop already running, which conflicts with the one that discord.py tries to start. The straightforward solution is to run your bot from the command line instead of Jupyter. However, if you’re required to use Jupyter, you can use the nest_asyncio library to resolve this. First, install it using pip install nest_asyncio, then include the following lines before the bot.run() call: import nest_asyncio and nest_asyncio.apply(). Additionally, you should replace send_message with channel.send() as the former is deprecated in the newer versions of discord.py.
Ugh, this error destroyed me when I built my first bot last year. You’ve got multiple event loops trying to run at the same time in Python. Sure, it could be IDE conflicts like others said, but you might also be running the script twice by accident or have leftover asyncio stuff from before. Just restart your Python interpreter completely before running the bot again. Also, your code’s using old discord.py syntax - upgrade to version 2.x and use discord.Bot() or commands.Bot() instead of discord.Client(). Way better functionality. Fix the conflicting processes and update discord.py, and this error’ll go away.
Understanding the “Why” (The Root Cause):
Step-by-Step Guide:
Common Pitfalls & What to Check Next:
Still running into issues? Share your (sanitized) config files, the exact command you ran, and any other relevant details. The community is here to help!