Why do I receive an "Unexpected Exception" error when attempting to activate my Student Version software?

When attempting to activate my MATLAB Student Version I receive the following error:

ERROR: Unexpected Exception:
There was an unexpected exception.  See the log file (/tmp/activation.log) for more details.

Answer 1

[MathWorks Support Team]

This issue generally occurs if there is a Java problem causing the activation client to crash. See the information below in order to resolve this issue:

NOTE: If you are using MATLAB 7.6 (R2008a) or earlier, see the Related Solution "Why do I get an unexpected exception when activating MATLAB 7.8 (R2009a) or earlier on a Mac OS X machine?"

This issue commonly occurs if you attempt to activate a computer that is not supported for your release of MATLAB. For example, activating MATLAB Student Version 7.1 (R14SP3) on an Intel-based Mac computer will result in this error as this release of MATLAB is not supported on Intel-based Mac computers. Check the system requirements page to make sure your computer is supported before continuing:

https://www.mathworks.com/support/requirements/matlab-system-requirements.html

If your computer is supported for MATLAB and you are receiving this error, try activating MATLAB manually. To do so, follow the steps in the Related Solution "How can I activate my Student Version of MATLAB that does not have access to the internet?"

If you are still unable to activate MATLAB following the steps above, contact Installation and Licensing Support here:

https://www.mathworks.com/support/contact_us.html