Windows 10 Matlab suddenly won't open

While I was working on Matlab, my computer crashed (it does this every now and again, it's an old windows HP laptop), but when I rebooted the laptop, the current version of Matlab won't open up: I click on the icon, it briefly flashes and then nothing happens. The previous versions still works fine, so it's not urgent, but obviously I'd want to be able to keep working on the current version.

Thanks!

[Greta Magnolia]

the same thing has just happened to me

[Andrew Cox]

I wasn't able to fix it exactly, but it turned out to only be an issue with that version of matlab, so I've been able to use the previous version without issue

[Changjun Cheng]

Thank you very much! I faced the same problem in R2020a and R2020b.The solution below cannot help. Then I tried R2019b, and the problem doesnt appear again.

[Sayak Mukherjee]

The below solution worked for me just fine

[minghan yuang]

oh my god it's working on my problem.

[Enrico Maria Renzi]

Thanks, I had this startup issue with vesion 2020a and this solution worked!!

[Dominic Diston]

Worked for me too.

[Zenofer Nisha]

Mee too

[Peter Hu]

Any other solutions? What if I just want to use the current version? I have no other working old versions of Matlab. And my 2021a version is facing the same issue. Also, is this temporary? Will it be all right again some hours later?

[YUVRAJ RAWAT]

I M GETTING SAME PROBLEM , PLEASE CAN ANYONE HELP ME OUT .

[Erik Huuki]

I had this problem on mac and after I ran the activation again it opened fine after. Be sure to allow access to documents

Answer 1

[Bhargav Kinnal]

Best answer to startup problems

https://nl.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/97167-why-will-matlab-not-start-up-properly-on-my-windows-based-system#answer_106517

[Dong Liu]

Nice! it worked for me!

[Peter Lusis]

Worked for me as well!

[Hrithik Auchar]

thanks

[Tullio maria sborgia]

it works for me too tanks a lot !

[Ryan Jones]

Same Issue, Problem one solution worked for me aswell

[Scott Dana]

Worked for me! Solution was for "Problem #1: Corrupt preferences"

I'm running on Windows 10.

Thanks for the help!

[Jorge Pinheiro]

It worked for me as well, I had the problem #1. Use the %AppData% to find the hidden folder, and change the name of the MATLAB folder.

Thanks for the help

[Thomas Ingstrup]

Solution 1 díd the trick for for me aswell

[Alessandro Pilloni]

Solution 1 works for me as well! Thanks a lot!

[Jaka Mocivnik]

Solution 1 works for me aswell. Thanks!

[Jennifer Esch]

Same here, solution 1 worked like a charm!

[Dunzhi Chen]

Same here, solution 1 worked!

[kamil altinay]

The first one worked very easily and accurately

[Max Parker]

Thanks, Solution 1 worked perfectly to restore functionality.

[Eric]

Solution 1 solved the problem really quickly.. :)

[Chuanqiang Zhang]

First solution solves the problem. Problem #1: Corrupt preferences

[Bhavana Valeti]

Worked very well.

[Sayand Sathish]

First solution worked. Thanks!

[mbedrock]

Thank you so much!

[Rudreswar Garikapati]

Thank u very much,worked like charm.

[Tooba Wahidi]

The first solution worked perfectly, thank you.

[Muhammed Ibrahim]

this solution worked. Thank you

[SHINAPHADH DAMRONGSIRI]

Perfect. Thank you very much.

[SUVRAUJJAL DUTTA]

Thanks.It works.

[Maurício Andrade]

:D It worked for me, too!!!!

Answer 2

[dumblydoop]

I had the same problem. Deleting my preferences folder did the trick, as described in the solution here:https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/97167-why-will-matlab-not-start-up-properly-on-my-windows-based-system

[Felix Pfreundtner]

For me it was similar

What worked was deleting in the user directory /AppData/Roaming/Mathworks/MatlabR2019a and MatlabR2019a_licence folder.

After it, restart Matlab and when asked for activation do it again.

Also a possible case for the issue might be that Windows defender blocks matlab and closes it before it can start. So put Matlab on the ignorance list for the firewall and the scanner.

In case Matlab starts again, but you get "Undefined function or variable 'rmiml.selectionLink'." in the command line:

This means your pathdef.m contains wrong entries.

You have to run following commands:

restoredefaultpath;

rehash toolboxcache;

after it you go in Matlab to the Home/Set Path window and then click "Save".

Problem might be also that you have 2 paths:

which pathdef -all

Delte one of the paths.

[Michael Landrigan]

Thanks for your comment. I solved the same issue by renaming the preference.

Joon

[mohammad akhlaghi]

thanks a lot

Answer 3

[milad hasani]

I suggest that install a last update on your installed matlab version:

For example 2018a:

https://www.mathworks.com/downloads/web_downloads/show_updates?release=R2018a

I tried this and fixed it.

[Zini Poon]

It works! Thanks!

Answer 4

[Gagandeep Sharma]

Following message is appearing on command window on start of the Matlab 2019b

java.io.IOException: The system cannot find the path specified

at java.io.WinNTFileSystem.createFileExclusively(Native Method)

at java.io.File.createNewFile(File.java:1012)

at com.mathworks.services.Prefs.readMigrateFlag(Prefs.java:2153)

at com.mathworks.services.Prefs.createTwoWayMapPrefsSettings(Prefs.java:373)

at com.mathworks.services.Prefs.<clinit>(Prefs.java:214)

at java.lang.Class.forName0(Native Method)

at java.lang.Class.forName(Class.java:264)

at com.mathworks.util.PostVMInit$StartupClass.init(PostVMInit.java:156)

at com.mathworks.util.PostVMInit.perform(PostVMInit.java:187)

Please advice what I have to do

Answer 5

[Gagandeep Sharma]

On trying to start simulink following message is prompting

> simulink

Cannot write to preference file "matlab.prf" in "C:\MATLAB_preferences ".

Check file permissions.

An error was encountered while saving the command history

java.io.FileNotFoundException: C:\MATLAB_preferences \History.xml (The system cannot find the path specified)

at java.io.RandomAccessFile.open0(Native Method)

at java.io.RandomAccessFile.open(RandomAccessFile.java:316)

at java.io.RandomAccessFile.<init>(RandomAccessFile.java:243)

at com.mathworks.mde.cmdhist.AltHistoryCollection$CommandSaver.run(AltHistoryCollection.java:1214)

at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:748)

java322

simulink

simulink

Undefined function or variable 'java322'.

Cannot write to preference file "matlab.prf" in "C:\MATLAB_preferences ".

Check file permissions.

An error was encountered opening file C:\MATLAB_preferences \History.xml

An error was encountered while saving the command history

java.io.FileNotFoundException: C:\MATLAB_preferences \History.xml (The system cannot find the path specified)

at java.io.RandomAccessFile.open0(Native Method)

at java.io.RandomAccessFile.open(RandomAccessFile.java:316)

at java.io.RandomAccessFile.<init>(RandomAccessFile.java:243)

at com.mathworks.mde.cmdhist.AltHistoryCollection$CommandSaver.run(AltHistoryCollection.java:1214)

at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:748)

Answer 6

[César Augusto Páez Betancourt]

Just hit the old restart button on your pc. It worked for me...