Python except block not running

Question

My goal is to retweet and favorite the very first tweet on a user's timeline. If the very first tweet hasn't been retweeted or fav, it retweets the tweet and fav, otherwise going to the except block and print "already retweeted" and sleep for 5 minutes.

Here is my code:

for i in iter(int, 1):

for tweet in tweepy.Cursor(api.user_timeline, screen_name='realdonaldtrump', include_rts=False, exclude_replies=True).items(1): 
    try:
        print('\nTweet by: @' + tweet.user.screen_name) 

        if not tweet.retweeted:
                    tweet.retweet() 
                    print('Retweeted the tweet')
        if not tweet.favorited:
                    tweet.favorite() 
                    print('Favorited the tweet')
        sleep(60)

    except:
        print('Already retweeted and favorited please be patient till next tweet')
        sleep(300)

But here the script never goes to the except block when the tweet is already retweet. I don't known why. Please explain how to solve this problem.

except:
            print('Already retweeted and favorited please be patient till next tweet')
            sleep(300)

My logs:

2020-08-04T16:06:14.608937+00:00 app[worker.1]: Tweet by: @realDonaldTrump
2020-08-04T16:06:14.785120+00:00 app[worker.1]: Retweeted the tweet
2020-08-04T16:06:15.013208+00:00 app[worker.1]: Favorited the tweet
2020-08-04T16:07:15.566250+00:00 app[worker.1]: Tweet by: @realDonaldTrump
2020-08-04T16:08:15.822568+00:00 app[worker.1]: 
2020-08-04T16:08:15.822615+00:00 app[worker.1]: Tweet by: @realDonaldTrump
2020-08-04T16:09:16.229441+00:00 app[worker.1]: 
2020-08-04T16:09:16.229453+00:00 app[worker.1]: Tweet by: @realDonaldTrump

Any help would be appreciated and thanks in advance.

Answer 1

The except block only runs if the try block returns an error. If the except code never ran, then that means there is no error to catch from the try . If you remove the try/except error catching, you will probably find that their is no error given, this is why the except code never runs.

Try this code

for tweet in tweepy.Cursor(api.user_timeline, screen_name='realdonaldtrump', include_rts=False, exclude_replies=True).items(1): 
    print('\nTweet by: @' + tweet.user.screen_name) 

    if not tweet.retweeted or not tweet.favorited:
        tweet.retweet() 
        print('Retweeted the tweet')

        tweet.favorite() 
        print('Favorited the tweet')
    else:
        print('Already retweeted and favorited please be patient till next tweet')
        sleep(300)

    sleep(60)