Telegram Bot Error Code 409 Despite There Being a Single Instance Running

When running the below file I get the following error code 409 despite trying everything to ensure that I only have one local process making the infinity_polling() call. I have looked through all of the other stack overflow posts relating to this same error code 409 but I can’t find any that match my situation or whose solutions work for me.

Notes:

• MacOS Ventura 13.5
• VSCode 1.81.1 (Universal)
• Python 3.9.12 in my project’s repo which is using pyenv 2.3.24
• pip3 list contains pyTelegramBotAPI 4.13.0 and telebot 0.0.5, but my associate running the same code base has no issue with just pyTelegramBot 4.9.0 installed and no telebot.
• pip 23.2.1 from /Users/*******/.pyenv/versions/3.9.12/lib/python3.9/site-packages/pip (python 3.9)
• another member of my team runs the same code to perform tests from a different machine and that works just fine

What I’ve tried:

• restarting my computer
• tracking down every python and vscode process in activity monitor and killing them
• deleting the whole local repo and re-cloning it
• uninstalling pyTelegramBotAPI and telebot and re installing them via pip3
• checking import statement: TelegramBot.py imports helper.py which imports fileNo2.py which imports TelegramBot.py with a from TelegramBot import * statement, but I’ve commented out that last statement to see if there is any issue with circular imports despite the if __name__ == '__main__': guard but nothing changes and I still get the error code 409.
• using just pyTelegramBotAPI version 4.9.0 like my colleague and uninstalling telebot but this does not appear to affect anything.
• adding a call to bot.remove_webhook() just above the bot.infinity_polling() line, but this also doesn’t appear to change anything.

What I would prefer not trying:

• I would be really happy if I don’t end up having to create a new token or a new telegram bot: there are other people with whom I’m working that would make this complicated

What would help me understand this better:

• Is the issue with the multiple bot instances running just a local issue? i.e. it’s ok to have two separate machines running this file making separate getUpdates requests to the telegram servers but not two processes on the same machine?
• How could another process that calls bot.infinity_polling() be running if I’ve restarted my computer? Doesn’t restarting a computer kill all processes by definition?

The file:

import telebot
import emoji
import sys
import Helpers.helper as helper

TOKEN = '*************************************'

bot = telebot.TeleBot(TOKEN, parse_mode=None)

@bot.message_handler(commands=['help'])
def send_welcome(message):
    bot.reply_to(message, "// List of commands for the bot")

if __name__ == '__main__':
    try:
        print("before call to IP")
        bot.infinity_polling()
        print("after call to IP")
    except (KeyboardInterrupt, SystemExit):
        pass

The terminal output (note that I use ctrl-C to kill it after one error message):

before call to IP
2023-08-26 14:40:01,906 (__init__.py:1083 MainThread) ERROR - TeleBot: "Threaded polling exception: A request to the Telegram API was unsuccessful. Error code: 409. Description: Conflict: terminated by other getUpdates request; make sure that only one bot instance is running"
2023-08-26 14:40:01,906 (__init__.py:1085 MainThread) ERROR - TeleBot: "Exception traceback:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Users/anonymous/.pyenv/versions/3.9.12/lib/python3.9/site-packages/telebot/__init__.py", line 1073, in __threaded_polling
    polling_thread.raise_exceptions()
  File "/Users/anonymous/.pyenv/versions/3.9.12/lib/python3.9/site-packages/telebot/util.py", line 108, in raise_exceptions
    raise self.exception_info
  File "/Users/anonymous/.pyenv/versions/3.9.12/lib/python3.9/site-packages/telebot/util.py", line 90, in run
    task(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/Users/anonymous/.pyenv/versions/3.9.12/lib/python3.9/site-packages/telebot/__init__.py", line 649, in __retrieve_updates
    updates = self.get_updates(offset=(self.last_update_id + 1),
  File "/Users/anonymous/.pyenv/versions/3.9.12/lib/python3.9/site-packages/telebot/__init__.py", line 623, in get_updates
    json_updates = apihelper.get_updates(self.token, offset, limit, timeout, allowed_updates, long_polling_timeout)
  File "/Users/anonymous/.pyenv/versions/3.9.12/lib/python3.9/site-packages/telebot/apihelper.py", line 321, in get_updates
    return _make_request(token, method_url, params=payload)
  File "/Users/anonymous/.pyenv/versions/3.9.12/lib/python3.9/site-packages/telebot/apihelper.py", line 162, in _make_request
    json_result = _check_result(method_name, result)
  File "/Users/anonymous/.pyenv/versions/3.9.12/lib/python3.9/site-packages/telebot/apihelper.py", line 189, in _check_result
    raise ApiTelegramException(method_name, result, result_json)
telebot.apihelper.ApiTelegramException: A request to the Telegram API was unsuccessful. Error code: 409. Description: Conflict: terminated by other getUpdates request; make sure that only one bot instance is running
"
^C2023-08-26 14:40:03,895 (__init__.py:966 MainThread) ERROR - TeleBot: "Infinity polling: polling exited"
2023-08-26 14:40:03,895 (__init__.py:968 MainThread) ERROR - TeleBot: "Break infinity polling"
after call to IP