Runtime app cannot find PNG resources unless starts from _internal

[Karen L]

I packaged some png files but it is not shown in the app, except when I start the app from the _internal directory. i.e. /path/to/_internal> ../workflow  I put everything in the same directory trying to make it work, but it is not working. Is this a bug?  Following is how I make the executable and the png files are inside the _internal directory. 

pyinstaller -y --clean --onefile --onedir --add-data myapp/resources:. --icon myapp.icns myapp/workflow.py

[Chris Barker]

How is the app deciding where to look for the PNG files?

It sounds like it may be using the current working dir -- which is not ideal.

If you have control of that code, you'll want to use another way to find them. 

I tend to put that kind of thing inside a python package, and use a path relative to a __file__ in a code file.

You also might be able to use:

import sys
if getattr(sys, 'frozen', False) and hasattr(sys, '_MEIPASS'):
    print('running in a PyInstaller bundle')
else:
    print('running in a normal Python process')

and then `sys.executable`

-CHB

On Tue, Aug 5, 2025 at 11:25 AM Karen L <engineerby...@gmail.com> wrote:

I packaged some png files but it is not shown in the app, except when I start the app from the _internal directory. i.e. /path/to/_internal> ../workflow  I put everything in the same directory trying to make it work, but it is not working. Is this a bug?  Following is how I make the executable and the png files are inside the _internal directory. 

pyinstaller -y --clean --onefile --onedir --add-data myapp/resources:. --icon myapp.icns myapp/workflow.py

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