Import Settings from Other Releases

When you start a newly installed version of MATLAB® for the first time, it attempts to import your settings from a previous release installed on your system. MATLAB looks for settings folders according to these guidelines.

  • MATLAB looks for a settings folder for release R2019b or newer. If MATLAB finds one or more settings folders matching that criteria, it migrates the files from the most recent version.

    For example, if you start R2025a and settings folders exist for both the R2024b and R2023b releases, then MATLAB migrates the files from the R2024b settings folder to the R2025a settings folder.

    Before R2021b: MATLAB only looks back three releases. For example, if you start R2021a, MATLAB looks for settings from R2020b, R2020a, and R2019b.

  • If a settings folder does not exist from a valid previous release, then MATLAB creates the default settings files for the release starting up.

  • If you install a release older than another installed version, MATLAB does not import settings from releases that are newer than that release.

To see the full path for the settings folder, type prefdir in the MATLAB Command Window. The name of the settings folder matches the name of the release you are running. For example, for MATLAB R2025a, the name of the settings folder is R2025a.

prefdir
ans =
    'C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\MathWorks\MATLAB\R2025a'

On macOS and iOS, the settings folder might be inside another folder that is hidden. If so, to access the hidden folder:

  1. In the Finder, select Go > Go to Folder.

  2. In the resulting dialog box, type the path returned by prefdir, and then press Enter.

Use Default Settings

Instead of importing settings from a previous release, you can use the default settings for the new release. To use the default settings, delete all of the files in the settings folder for the corresponding release. Use the prefdir command to determine the full path of the settings folder.

For example, to use the default settings for R2025a, start MATLAB, and in the Command Window, type prefdir to determine the location of the settings folder.

prefdir
ans =
    'C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\MathWorks\MATLAB\R2025a'
Close MATLAB, delete all of the files in the folder C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\MathWorks\MATLAB\R2025a, and then start MATLAB again. MATLAB starts with all settings set to their default values. One file to consider keeping is history.m. For more information, see Modify Command History Settings.

Alternatively, if you have not started the new release yet, create an empty settings folder for it. This will prevent MATLAB from importing settings when you do open the new release, and force it to use the default settings instead. For example, to use the default settings for MATLAB R2025a, if your MATLAB settings are stored in the C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\MathWorks\MATLAB folder, create the folder C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\MathWorks\MATLAB\R2025a.

See Also

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