Why will MATLAB not start up properly on MacOS?

Why will MATLAB not start up properly on my Mac?

Answer 1

[MathWorks Support Team]

If MATLAB is not launching properly, and you are not receiving any License Manager Errors, then you may perform the following solutions:

• Check System Requirements
• Disable Security Software
• Regenerate Preferences
• Start MATLAB from the Installation Folder
• Provide MATLAB with Full Disk Access
• Start MATLAB in Debug Mode

Check System Requirements

Ensure that your MacOS meets the system requirements for the release of MATLAB you are attempting to launch. If you have recently updated to a new version of macOS, you may need to update to a newer version of MATLAB.

Disable Security Software

The security software on the machine may be interfering with MATLAB.  To troubleshoot, try disabling any security software or reboot in safe boot. 

Regenerate Preferences

One of the most common reasons for MATLAB to fail to launch is due to corrupted preferences. To regenerate your preferences, remove or rename your preferences directory then relaunch MATLAB:

1. Open the Finder, the blue face on the dock
2. In Finder, click on the “Go” menu and select “Go to Folder”
3. Go to this folder: ~/Library/Application Support/MathWorks/MATLAB
   1. For R2016a and earlier: ~/.matlab
4. Locate the folder that corresponds to your MATLAB version and delete/rename it. For example, rename “R2021a” to “R2021a_old”.

Note: Do not delete any folders that contain the word licenses in the folder name, e.g. R2021a_licenses. These folders contain important license information.

Once the folder has been renamed, try restarting MATLAB to regenerate the preferences.

Start MATLAB from the Installation Folder

The shortcut generated during the installation of MATLAB may be corrupted or broken. To troubleshoot if this is the cause of MATLAB's failure to launch, start MATLAB from the installation folder:

1. Open the Finder, the blue face on the dock
2. In Finder, click on the “Go” menu and select “Go to Folder”
3. Go to this folder: /Applications/MATLAB_R20XXx.app/bin/
4. Double click matlab

Note: The R20XXx must be edited to correspond to your install release of MATLAB, e.g. R2021a.

If MATLAB launches, you may create a new alias from the matlab executable in the /bin.

Provide MATLAB with Full Disk Access

If MATLAB does not have the required access permissions it may not start, such as access to the Documents folder. To ensure that MATLAB has the appropriate access permissions, please provide MATLAB with Full Disk Access:

1. Open Privacy & Security tab from the System Preferences application
2. Select Full Disk Access on the right
3. Click the '+' symbol on the bottom of the list
4. Type in your administrator password
5. Click Applications
6. Select MATLAB

Start MATLAB in Debug Mode

To start MATLAB in debug mode, launch MATLAB without the desktop environment. To do so, open a Terminal window (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app) and run the following command:

$MATLAB/bin/matlab -nodesktop

Where $MATLAB is the path to your MATLAB directory. For example, if you are using MATLAB R2021a and have installed MATLAB in the default directory, the command will be:

/Applications/MATLAB_R2021a.app/bin/matlab -nodesktop

If MATLAB starts, it will start in the Terminal window itself. The title of the Terminal window will change to say “MATLAB_maci64 -nodesktop.”

From the Terminal window, run the command “desktop” to attempt to start the MATLAB desktop environment. This will produce an error message which may help you to identify the problem. If you would like assistance in interpreting the error, please contact Installation and Licensing Support.

[Yadu Paudel]

This worked for me. Thanks a lot!!

Clear Preferences

Remove your preferences directory so MATLAB will recreate it when you launch MATLAB:

1. Open the Finder, the blue face on the dock
2. In Finder, click on the “Go” menu and select “Go to Folder”
3. Go to this folder: ~/.matlab for R2016a and earlier or

~/Library/Application Support/MathWorks/MATLAB R2016b-present # Locate the folder that corresponds to your MATLAB version and rename it. For example, rename “R2016b” to “R2016b_old”. Do not delete any folders that contain the word licenses in the folder name, e.g. R2016b_licenses. These folders contain important license information. # Once the folder has been renamed, try starting MATLAB.

[Thomas Busey]

There is also a conflict with onedrive. See:

https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/480796-not-responding-on-startup-macos-mojave

[Javen]

Thanks Yadu, works for me. Great job.

[M.S. Khan]

Works for me too. Great job.

[Don Vernekohl]

The Full Disk Access did the magic

[Andrew Pan]

Thank you! Granting Matlab with Full Disk Access solves my problem.

[James Griffin]

In my case, I could use the last technique, starting in -nodesktop and then issuing the desktop command, which produced the following response:

2022-11-08 10:56:34.736 MATLAB_maci64[67047:8397146] CoreText note: Client requested name ".SFNS-Regular", it will get TimesNewRomanPSMT rather than the intended font. All system UI font access should be through proper APIs such as CTFontCreateUIFontForLanguage() or +[NSFont systemFontOfSize:].

multiple times. And the desktop appeared. This is obviously not a good solution. Can MathWorks provide a more permanent solution?

Answer 2

[Dwobble]

Possible workaround for running dual monitors:

I've been running MATLAB R2019b on macOS Catalina and am currently using a larger secondary monitor in addition to my native mac screen. I originally set the external monitor to be my primary display, but was unable to load MATLAB beyond the splash screen. By setting the built-in display as the primary display, I was able to successfully load MATLAB beyond the splash screen.

System Preferences > Displays > Arrangement > Drag menu bar to built-in display

Note: While the menu bar on mac appears by default on all connected displays, placement of the menu bar on a display within the system preferences determines which screen is the primary.

[Patrik.Neuro]

This works with multiple monitors even when using DisplayLink software. Thanks!

[Kashumi Madampe]

I am using DisplayLink too and had the same problem with MATLAB R2020a. The workaround solved the issue! Thank you so much!

[Rebekah Lee]

Yes! I just got a DisplayLink dock and also had the same issue with the MATLAB R2022a. I tried a lot of things that didn't work, but this was simple and it worked!!

[bellaTheSiamese]

Thank you for saving my sanity! After few hours of troubleshooting, finally, I was able to start the program.

Answer 3

[smsinks]

In my case initiating MATLAB Desktop from the Terminal works fine. However, double clicking the MATLAB_2020a icon in the Applications folder (or anywhere else) does not start MATLAB. In the second case Matlab crushes during launch without throwing any error message.

Any suggestions that would fix this?

[Christian Chiadikobi]

Try allowing MATLAB_2020a to access files and folder in your privacy settings.

System prefences > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Files and Folders > locate Matlab_2020a icon, then make sure that the document folder tick box is selected.

Hope this helps

[smsinks]

This worked!!

Thanks Christian.

I now know what happened. MATLAB 2019b had access to the files and folders but not MATLAB 2020a because only one version can have access to the files and folders at any time. This is unlike the behaviour of previous MATLAB versions.

Then I uninstalled MATLAB 2019b -- the beginning of the troubles. Because after that, MATLAB 2020a didn't show the usual message requesting access to the files and folders.

I should have figured it out, but I also think that MathWorks should fix this.

Thanks once more.

[Mohammed Alhazmi]

This worked for me too!

Thanks Christian.

[Elodie LEVY]

That's woked for me too!

Thanks so much Christian

Answer 4

[Frankie Kan]

use command line to start matlab without JVM, this solved my problem.

cd /Applications/MATLAB_R2018a.app/bin

./matlab -nojvm

Answer 5

[Yi Chen]

This works for me. Thanks

Debugging Mode

Try running MATLAB without the desktop environment. Open a Terminal window (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app) and run the following command:

$MATLAB/bin/matlab -nodesktop

Where $MATLAB is the path to your MATLAB directory. For example, if you are using MATLAB R2016b and have installed MATLAB in the default directory, the command will be:

/Applications/MATLAB_R2016b.app/bin/matlab -nodesktop

If MATLAB starts, it will start in the Terminal window itself. The title of the Terminal window will change to say “MATLAB_maci64 -nodesktop.” From the Terminal window, run the command “desktop” to attempt to start the MATLAB desktop environment. This will produce an error message which may help you to identify the problem. If you would like assistance in interpreting the error, please contact MathWorks support.

Answer 6

[Srinivas Gorur Shandilya]

I had this problem too, when using my laptop in headless mode with an external display. The bug can be reproduced by starting MATLAB with the built-in display closed. To get around it, open the built-in display, start MATLAB, and then close it again

I would guess that MATLAB thinks (wrongly) that the built-in display is avaialble, tries to open a window there, fails, and panics.

[Lukas Danninger]

Thank you! that did the trick for me as well.