ImportError: cannot import QtWebEngineWidgets after Spyder upgrade – impact on user plugins

After a botched Spyder upgrade, the IDE may fail to start with an ImportError such as “cannot import name 'QtWebEngineWidgets' from PyQt5.QtWebEngineWidgets”. The documented recovery paths are launching Spyder with --reset (which restores default preferences and removes user‑specific plugins) or using --safe mode (which disables third‑party plugins while preserving the existing configuration).

Users who rely on custom layouts, pane arrangements, or installed plugins face a trade‑off: a full reset eliminates those personalizations, whereas safe mode may still leave the IDE unable to launch if the underlying Qt bindings remain mismatched. The current behavior does not specify whether an automatic recovery mechanism should selectively preserve user‑installed plugins while clearing only corrupted configuration files, or whether it should treat all user data as expendable.

What criteria should determine which user data is retained during a post‑upgrade recovery? Should Spyder offer a middle‑ground option that resets only the configuration directory while leaving the plugins folder intact? Is there a need for a configurable fallback that attempts safe mode first and only resets if safe mode fails?