The following code ``` fig, axes = plt.subplots(nrows=1, ncols=2, sharex=True, sharey=True) axes[0].plot([1,2,3]) print axes[0].get_xlim(), axes[0].get_ylim() plt.show() ``` outputs ``` (-0.059999999999999998, 0.059999999999999998) (-0.059999999999999998, 0.059999999999999998) ``` The axis limits are only updated to sane values once the second axes is populated with something. If a subplot with shared axes is empty, I expect the view limits to be set according to the non-empty plots