diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index f52dc720f2..e24dc4d93c 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -7,6 +7,12 @@ This project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0.htm
 
 ## [Development]
 
+## [0.35.10 - 2025-01-24]
+
+### Fixes: 
+
+* Spanner: better handling of spanner_config issues: #634, #644
+
 ## [0.35.9 - 2025-01-22]
 
 ### Docs 
diff --git a/graphistry/PlotterBase.py b/graphistry/PlotterBase.py
index f4ed0917a3..885acfc8aa 100644
--- a/graphistry/PlotterBase.py
+++ b/graphistry/PlotterBase.py
@@ -2530,13 +2530,14 @@ def spanner_gql_to_g(self: Plottable, query: str) -> Plottable:
         res = copy.copy(self)
         
         if not hasattr(res, '_spannergraph'):
-            spanner_config = PyGraphistry._config["spanner"]
+            spanner_config = PyGraphistry._config.get("spanner", None)
+
             if spanner_config is not None: 
                 logger.debug(f"Spanner Config: {spanner_config}")
             else: 
-                raise ValueError('spanner_config is None, use spanner_init() or register() passing spanner_config')
+                raise ValueError('spanner_config not defined. Pass spanner_config via register() and retry query.')
         
-            res = res.spanner_init(PyGraphistry._config["spanner"])  # type: ignore[attr-defined]
+            res = res.spanner_init(spanner_config)  # type: ignore[attr-defined]
 
         return res._spannergraph.gql_to_graph(res, query)
 
diff --git a/graphistry/plugins/spannergraph.py b/graphistry/plugins/spannergraph.py
index 7f29dbbf5c..3aeb6a34a1 100644
--- a/graphistry/plugins/spannergraph.py
+++ b/graphistry/plugins/spannergraph.py
@@ -82,7 +82,8 @@ def __connect(self) -> Any:
         from google.cloud.spanner_dbapi.connection import connect
 
         try:
-            if self.credentials_file: 
+            if hasattr(self, 'credentials_file') and self.credentials_file is not None:
+                
                 connection = connect(self.instance_id, self.database_id, credentials=self.credentials_file)
             else:
                 connection = connect(self.instance_id, self.database_id)