python SyntaxError unicode error unicodeescape codec cant decode bytes in position 2-3 truncated UXXXXXXXX escape

This error occurs when a backslash is used in a string literal as an escape character, but the backslash itself is not properly escaped. For example, if you have a string like this:

path = "C:\Users\John\Desktop"

Python will interpret the "\U" in "Users" as the start of a Unicode escape sequence, resulting in the error you described.

To fix this, you can use a raw string by adding an "r" before the opening quote:

path = r"C:\Users\John\Desktop"

This will tell Python to treat the backslashes as literal characters, rather than escape characters