Not responding on startup, macOS Mojave

I have just installed MATLAB 2019b on a Macbook Pro 2019 running macOS Mojave 10.14.6.

Just after installation, Matlab ran fine. However, if I now try to open it I see the splash screen then it freezes on the Matlab window showing no content and I have to force quit. If I run from the command line with -nodesktop it works and I can even load the desktop from there and it works ok. But if I try to load directly it hangs. I doubt it is a conflict as I have installed barely anything else on this macbook yet.

[Henk Verhaar]

Same here - opening from the 'icon' gives me an unresponsive blank window after the spash screen. Starting 'from the terminal' (in my case just by double-clicking the 'matlab' script in /Applications/MATLAB R2019b/bin ) works fine - until I change the MatlabPath from a default to my actual folder with my own routines (in /Users/henk/Documents/MATLAB/). Next time I try to start matlab 'from the terminal' I again get the Matlab command window (not blank) but an eternally spinning beach ball...

[Eric Hall]

Same issue - 2019b hangs in OSX and requires a force quit.

[Walter Roberson]

If you have Magnet or similar, then turn it off or configure it to ignore matlab

[William Smith]

I do not have Magnet.

[tetonedge]

I have the exact same issue as well

[Simon Schneiderbauer]

In my case Matlab 2019b does not even start on MacOS Mojave 10.14.6, while Matlab 2019a works fine.

[mark yao]

I have same issue (matlab 2019b on macbook pro, MacOS 10.14.6.). It just no reponse after lunch. I did reinstall and restart computer, same thing.

[Selene Schmittling]

I also have this issue. Thought it might be Spectacle, a window manager I use. However, Matlab 2019b on Mac OS 10.14.6 freezes even in Safe Boot mode. I'm reinstalling and will try opening it from terminal....

Grr...had similar issues with 2019a and 2018b....double grr.....

[Xiao Liu]

same issue, no response after launch, need force quit. 2019b on MacOS 10.14.6, macbook pro 2013.

[Davide Pochetti]

I have the same issue, v.2R019b freezes after launch on MacOS High Sierra 10.13.6.

Solved it by closing OneDrive at bootup.

[Antoine OLLIER]

thanks for this help ;)

I exit onedrive and matlab launch ! (high sierra and 2019b)

[tetonedge]

I do not have OneDrive and still have this issue

[Andrey Ko]

i has too

[royk]

For me, turnning off "Witch" (a program for window switching) solved the problem.

[Chenyu Guan]

I turned off "Context" and it works. By the way, after turning off context, the previously missing file "MATLABDesktop.xml" in the matlab folder finally shows up.

[Deepak Sapkota]

I have the same issue with my MacBook 2019. I uninstalled Matlab 2019b and installed Matlabe 2020a, but I still have the same problem. I tried to follow the instruction given by JOn Gotow (here below in answers), but it does not work. Does anyone have any remedy for me to run matlab in my laptop?

Thanks.

[Nate Weger]

I have the same issue as Deepak, I get the spinning rainbow of death every time I open up Matlab, even after an uninstall/reinstall, don't know how to fix this

[Nate Weger]

Just kidding, I followed Jon's instructions and turned off the accessibility for RescueTime and now it works!

[António Costa]

I had the same problem on Catalina with R2020a. Turned off the accessibility for RescueTime and it worked!

[Myles Mcleod]

Same issue with Catalina and R2020a. Removed accessibility permission for a utility named Contexts. That did the trick. Thanks!

[Giovanni Grassi]

what is rescuetime?

[Walter Roberson]

rescuetime appears to be time tracking and distraction blocking; https://www.rescuetime.com/premium

[Samer Mohamed]

Okay, wow, this is crazy. I also happen to have RescueTime on my computer and quitting it seems to have allowed Matlab to work on startup instantly. It bothers me so much that they can't play nice together. Oh well, thanks for the advice!

[Elizabeth Van Itallie]

I had the same issue and quit rescue time and now MATLAB is working. MATLAB needs to fix this...

[Matt DuHarte]

I can add that on OSX the Timing App (same concept as Rescue Time) will exhibit the same behavior.

[Ruben Plaza]

They should fix this, but as long as I quit rescue time it works. I was thinking it was an error with command line tools or xcode

[Simardeep Hari]

Hi guys, nothing anyone suggested worked for me and then I tried my own way:

I'd advise making a backup of your MATLAB folder on your desktop in case you need any of your files later. Once that's done, just go to your MATLAB folder and delete all of its contents. Try opening MATLAB again and it should work.

I think what happened was there was a faulty function or script in my MATLAB folder that kept messing it up for me. I hope this helps someone :)

[Sebastian Sas Brunser]

Thanks Simardeep Hari . This solved my problem.

[Athar Ali]

I experience same issue on MAC book Pro. Matlab 2020b and Matlab 2022a. While editing the figure or scope image.

[Guillermo Aldana]

Dissabling Grammarly did the trick for me - under privacy.

Answer 1

[Jon Gotow]

I'm the developer of Default Folder X. With the help of Philip Slaymaker I've tracked down the issue with Matlab. Matlab doesn't launch correctly if other apps use the Accessibility API (a part of macOS) to query it for information while it's launching.

A number of apps use the Accessibility API to communicate with other applications. These include Default Folder X, Magnet, Spectacle, and most other utilities that help you arrange / resize windows. If you run into this problem, you can narrow down the possible culprits by going to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Accessibility. This list shows all the applications that you've given permission to use the Accessibility API - one of them is triggering the bug in Matlab and causing it to hang. You'll need to use a process of elimination to determine which one, but it'll usually be an app that gets and sets information about other applications' windows.

Note that contacting the developer of any of these applications won't really help much, as it's not their fault. The fundamental issue is that Matlab contains a bug that causes it to hang when other apps request information via the Accessibility API. That bug needs to be fixed to resolve this problem. Phil Slaymaker submitted the bug to MathWorks - hopefully they'll fix it soon.

In the meantime, if you're a Default Folder X user, I have a version of DFX that may successfully work around the problem. I'd appreciate hearing from you at support (at) stclairsoft (dot) com.

- Jon

[YU LI]

Thanks and I was able to start Matlab now with your advice. This answer shall be voted so more people can see it.

[Jon Gotow]

I've released version 5.4.2 of Default Folder X with a workaround for this problem, so you can now run Default Folder X and MATLAB 2019b together without triggering the bug.

[Walter Roberson]

Thank you, Jon Gotow !!

[Zoran Popovic]

Just installed Matlab R2019b on Catalina v10.15.2 (19C57) and ran into this issue. Upgraded DFX to 5.4.2 and all works like a charm.

Thanks for the tip Jon!

Cheers,

Zoran

[Jon Gotow]

You're welcome - glad it's all working correctly now!

[Deemo Chen]

You save my day! A real time translation app is requesting the api causing the freezing issue(Catalina 15.2, r2019b), uncheck from the Accessibility solve the problem!!

Thanks

Deemo

[Juan]

Jon: i also have the same issue. MATLAB recommended your post and I tried to disable most of the apps. The only one active now is Dropbox (that I truly need active). Is there any other way to solve this problem?

thanks

[Jon Gotow]

Go ahead and turn off the checkbox for Dropbox. Dropbox will still sync files fine without it (I'm not actually sure why Dropbox needs that permission, to be honest - I never grant it).

- Jon

[yongtong liu]

You are so GREAT!

[Artur Soczawa-Stronczyk]

Disabling Magnet solved the issue for me.

[Filip Cizner]

Thank you, in my case it was program "Contexts". There is no need to disable it in setting -> solution is to open Contexts, push "Quit Contexts" . Then load Matlab, after loading Matlab Contexts could be run again.

Thank you Jon!

[Thomas Busey]

Turning off onedrive while I launch matlab 2020a worked for me. Just quit onedrive from the menu and then relaunch onedrive from the applications folder.

[Lucas Schneeberger]

Hey Jon,

Thanks for this valuable answer. How can we support Phil Slaymaker's bug submission? Is there a way to make Mathwork raise it the issue to a higher priority?

Thanks a lot for your research and answer.

Lucas

[Jon Gotow]

I believe the bug has been fixed in MATLAB 2020 now, though I'm not absolutely certain. It'd be good to hear from someone that's upgraded and can confirm that for sure.

- Jon

[Licheng MAO]

Unfortunately,

I still have the problem on 2020a. I need to quit another software to use 2020a.

[Jon Gotow]

Thanks Licheng - that's disappointing, but good to know. I thought they'd finally fixed it :-(

[Mark Weggeland]

I recently replaced my MBP and in the process of reinstalling Matlab upgraded to r2020a from r2019. When I did so, I ran into this problem for the first time (it was working with r2019...), and it is still broken. The only way I can get Matlab to launch is to quit Default Folder X.

[Giles]

Still happening at startup on 2020a for me too. Moreover, removing permissions for other apps that use the Accessibility API has not always worked to fix this bug, as others have reported. At least three updates and one major version release later. You'd think this would have been a priority for them... I don't understand companies that spend their resources slopping on new features while the ones they already have don't work (in this case the feature of being able to start their app in the first place).

[Lin Qi]

Unfortunately, the bug still exists currently on Aug 2020 lol. And, I have cancelled every app's permission to accessibility, yet the bug still exists. Sometimes Matlab could be opened, but sometimes it freezes on initialising. I can't find any pattern when it's okay and when it's not.

[Lin Qi]

Here is a solution maybe. Open MATLAB, and then open another app, or let another app come into the front, anyway let the MATLAB starting in the background. Then it would successfully startup every time on my laptop. If I just open MATLAB and let it starting in the front, it would be randomly a success or failure. Can't find any pattern.

[Dave]

Lin, thanks for your suggestion on 12 August 2020 about opening MATLAB in the background. This seems to work for me on R2019b and OS 10.14.6. (I will also add that the suggestion by CoolNickname below did not.)

[Xiaoye Wang]

Lin's method works marvelously for me too. I'm using R2020a and macOS 10.15.6

[Lin Qi]

No worries Dave. And FYI, the bug has disappeared in the newest 2020b as I tested. Hopefully this could work for you as well. Good luck!

[Graham Langford]

I'm running MATLAB 2020b and Catalina 10.15.7 and this trick just worked for me. Thanks for the help!

[Andrew Stone]

Jon, you hero! I'm annoyed how easy this was to fix and that I put up with dozens of crashes and time-outs over the last several months (atleast once a session), somebody give this guy a medal!

After only using for about 10 mintues of use since turning off accessibility pervilages for certain apps as Jon mentioned, performace is signifcantly improved and UI is also drasically more responsive (like control systems designer toolbox and plotting tools).

There was sereral things that would consistently cause a 'MATLAB not responding' error or crash all togeather that I've since tested and it's very smooth; I'm thinking for me it was Magent App that was causing the issue but I can't say for sure since I also revoked privilages from 2 or 3 other apps.

I had this issue on several versions of matlab (most noticable since OS 11 BigSur). Today I upgraded to 2021a to see if my issues would resolve from an update (which it didn't) which led me to this solution ; Thanks Jon!

[Jon Gotow]

Glad it helped! I still can't believe this issue is still kicking :-(

[Pedro Bezerra]

Thank you!

I have MatLab R2020a running in a 2011 MacBook Pro with High Sierra macos. I disabled Spectacle in System Accessibility and worked fine!

[Antonino Samuele Cucinotta]

Problem still present on Matlab 2021b, I encountered this bug just after installed macOS Monterey (2020 intel chip Mac). Using this tip and disabling "zoom" worked for me, but honestly reading that this problem is releted to September 2019 is not so encouragin. Thanks a lot for all the comments.

SC

[Chouaib Bencheikh]

Thank you so much!

I was experiencing tremednous lagging when using MATLAB. Moreover, I had the issue that whne I try to close figures using the command "close all" MATLAB stops working.

I followed your instructions and I found that Grammarly was the application creating the issue.

[Jingjing Zou]

thank you for the answer. Unfortunately I still have the issue after checking and confirming no app is using the API. Matlab would initially start fine with slight lag. But after plotting a couple of figure, it freezes again and becomes unuseable.

[Duncan Carlsmith]

I found just now this advice fixed a number of issues, run 2023a MacBookPro M1 Ventura. Disabled Grammarian accessibility access and voila!! Thank you Jon.

P.S. After doing this, another issue disappeared - I found Image Viewer and Color Thresholder apps started working again. They would launch and then after loading a file become unresponsive.

Answer 2

[CoolNickname]

I had the same problem today with R2019b. Out of nowhere - well, after installing update 5 of R2019b - it stopped working. MATLAB would just not open after clicking it. The little dot under thy icon appeared and disappeared shortly after.

But I was able to start MATLAB through the terminal via

/Applications/MATLAB_R2019b.app/bin/matlab

But the real problem solver was to give it full disk access. For that please go to Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Full Disk Access. There you should check MATLAB. Or, if it isn't listed, click on the + and look for it in the Application folder and add it to the list manually. After doing that it was good to go.

I also use the app "Magnet", but that didn't cause the problem. However, one should constrain Magnet to ignore MATLAB, otherweise MATLAB could be quite laggy.

Hope that helps.

[jiajun chen]

It really helps!!! My matlab now works again~ I turn on the full dick access and then the it works. Later I turn off the access it still works! Thanks

[Chloe Pappas]

This worked for me! Completely stopped lagging and fixed the whole problem. Thank you!

[Todd DeLong]

This worked for me as well. I also offer my many thanks!

[Shen Mingxi Shen]

it works!!! maybe it is the real reason, thanks so much!

[Yishaia Zabary]

You are a life saver! thanks!

[Mark Weggeland]

Thank you. This solved the problem with DFX.

[John Sheridan]

Thanks Jon, as a long tem ( and very satisfied user) of Default Folder X, this was not something I was aware of or would have ever thought of. I removed DFX from accessibility and instantly worked. Have passed on the solution to my University IT Help but I imagine it is a rare combination of software interactions.

Thanks,

John Sheridan

Emeritus Professor of Fluid Mechanics

[Miguel Cruz]

Thank you soo much coolnickname

[Florian Anderl]

Fixed it for me. Thank you very much.

[Kwabena]

Fixed it for me too. Thanks a lot

Answer 3

[Selene Schmittling]

Here I am again in this Discussion thread. I was so hoping I wouldn't have to return.

I run MATLAB R2019b on macOS Catalina 10.15.4. I have not had issues with MATLAB in a while then suddenly (when I'm under a time crunch, of course) I get the whiring pinwheel of death every time I open MATLAB.

What I am posting now is a quick and dirty way to get a responsive instance of MATLAB (I can't worry about an actual fix right now).

I open an instance of Terminal. I type "/{path_to_your_matlab_application_folder}/bin -nodesktop" (replace the material in braces {} with the path to your Matlab application folder).

This starts a command line instance of MATLAB (I assume). At the ">>" prompt I type "desktop".

Then I find myself in a working instance of MATLAB able to do my work.

You can find this solution by querying "MATLAB not responding". I may have cobbled it together by reading more than one post. I wanted to share here in the hopes that it kept others from unnecessary hair loss.

Regards,

S

[Thomas Busey]

This worked great. Thanks for posting. A slight correction (forgot the matlab part):

/Applications/MATLAB_R2020a.app/bin/matlab -nodesktop

[Raymond Phan]

This also worked for me as well. I have no idea why the hell it keeps freezing. Thanks!

[Deepak Sapkota]

Doing this opens the matlab via the Terminal, not through the shortcut icon.

[Xiaokai Xia]

It works for me.

Matlab R2020 and macOS 10.15.4

Thank you so much.

[Andrew Davies]

Worked for me. After doing this once, MATLAB stated launching normally again. What was different was the start folder, I'd been poking around in the matlab setting folder (~/Library/Application Support/MathWorks/MATLAB/R2020a) and launched from there, MATLAB remembered the start folder next time and worked. Curiously after reverting the start folder it still launches...

[Selene Schmittling]

Thank you for this information. I had the same experience. After using the command line work around a few times, I was able to start MATLAB from the Applications folder. However, I didn't understand why it work. :P

[Stuart Campbell]

Thank you so much for posting this work-around - what a life-saver!

[Giulio Suzumura]

Thank you!!!

[Dz Y]

this works

[Parminder Basran]

Thanks! This got me going again with my 2020a installation, mac 10.15.6

[Anand Kulkarni]

Thank you for posting this!! It works for me. 2020a with 10.14.6.

Answer 4

[Lin Qi]

Here is a solution maybe. Open MATLAB, and then open another app, or let another app come into the front, anyway let the MATLAB starting in the background. Then it would successfully startup every time on my laptop. If I just open MATLAB and let it starting in the front, it would be randomly a success or failure. Can't find any pattern.

[Stefan Baginski]

This has also worked in my case. Strange.

[Parminder Basran]

FWIW, this did not work for 2020a and Catalina 10.16.6, nor for my 2019b instance.

[Lin Qi]

Try 2020b mates. The bug disappeared in this version.

[Giles]

There are about 20 solutions that people claim to work in the comments for this bug. I have tried most of them. This is the only one that works for me. Works every time: start MATLAB, wait for the splash screen, switch focus to any other app, let MATLAB continue to open behind it (you can move the front app window to see where it's at), when you see the MATLAB command window say "Ready" in its footer bar switch focus to MATLAB -> good to go. Works every time for me.

[goc3]

2020b does seem to have fixed the problem, as mentioned by @Lin Qi.

Also, having to put MATLAB in the background during startup does not seem to be required for 2020b.

Side note: none of the fixes mentioned in this thread, including letting MATLAB start up without focus, worked for me in 2020a, other than starting it up in terminal using the "-nodesktop" option and then running the desktop command.

[Peter Kaczkowski]

Changing focus works for me too with 2019b. Unfortunately, the code I need to run does not yet work with 2020b, so I'm SOL.

Answer 5

[Gregor Dumphart]

I was also troubled by Matlab R2020b getting stuck usually in the first minute of use on macOS Big Sur. I followed all suggestions in this topic, but to no avail.

Here's what fixed it for me: In System Preferences -> Accessibility -> Zoom, deactivate everything, especially Advanced -> Smooth Images. Immediately, my Matlab experience became a hundred times more fluent and I am stuck-free ever since.

Cheers

[Guo Jack]

Thank you so much. This also works for me.

[Artemis]

you genuinely fixed all my problems. I can't even begin to thank you. please have a great life

Answer 6

[Zongde Qiu]

same issue on MacOS 10.14.6

Answer 7

[Selene Schmittling]

I have finally gotten MATLAB 2019b to work on my mac with os 10.14.6.

Initially, I could not even get MATLAB to run in Safe Boot Mode. However, after a clean uninstall (including deleting Mathworks folder out of "Application Support" folder, I was able to get it running.

There were four possible sources of conflict: Goolge Drive Stream, OneDrive, Spectacle and Echo Desktop auto-loader (loads when Echo pen connected to USB).

I turned all these off and opened MATLAB and it worked.

I turned off the automatic load of Echo Desktop and turned it back on. MATLAB still working

I also have a piece of software called Spectacle, which sizes windows with keystrokes. I turned that off and have since turned it back on and am still running MATLAB successfully.

I have not started up Google Drive Stream or OneDrive yet. I'm just so happy to have MATLAB working, I don't want to tempt fate. When I turn these back on, I'll post back my results.

I hope this helps someone else struggling with this issue too.

Regards and good luck,

[Viktor Nilsson]

Uninstalling OneDrive solved it for me. Thank you!

[mark yao]

HI, Selene Schmittling

What you mean by "I turned all these off .... " (and opened MATLAB and it worked.).

I have google drive installed, how do you turned off or stop and start them on Mac?

Thanks

[Selene Schmittling]

To "turn the apps off" I followed two steps:

I disabled the apps from loading on start-up in their preferences and then quit each of them. In the case of Google Drive File Stream app, this is done by clicking on the gear in the upper right. To disable "load on startup" go to preferences after clicking on gear. To quit click on gear and choose quit.

I just started Google Drive File Stream app back up again and I'm using MATLAB. So far no issues. It may be that OneDrive is the issue especially since Viktor Nilsson said uninstalling OneDrive solved it.

I have not started OneDrive since this issue was resolved.

I hope that's helpful.

Regards!

[Selene Schmittling]

UPDATE:

I have reloaded Google File Drive Stream. It currently auto-loads on start-up and I have not had an issue yet with MATLAB 2019b.

This leaves One Drive, which was an issue for Viktor above. I'm loath to load it again and have my precious house of cards fall to its knees. For now, I'll keep it off.

However, if in the future I turn it back on and use MATLAB, I'll be sure to post my results.

-S

[Selene Schmittling]

UPDATE:

AAAAAARRRRGGGHHHH!!!! This ridiculous bug is back (of course when I need to get some work done). I have this issue on a Mac Book Pro 2016 running Catalina 10.15.1.

MATLAB® people: please, please fix this.

I have been running MATLAB fine, even with Spectacle running, then out of the blue, MATLAB hangs again. Once it hangs, there is no way to get it running without reinstalling the whole mess again shy of (hopefully) booting in safe mode.

I went in and removed all items that required accessibility to whit: Spectacle, Duet and Google File Drive Stream. I have rebooted my machine (multiple times) and MATLAB still hangs.

This is beyond infuriating. I'm going to boot into safe mode and hope I can get my work done.

Answer 8

[Jason]

I'm not sure if this is related, but when I upgraded to Catalina, I lost the ability to access many folders on my computer (Matlab R2017b). I added Matlab under System Preferences --> Security & Privacy --> Privacy --> Full Disk Access, but it didn't change anything. Upon bootup, Matlab can't find many of the files in the Matlab path. And I can't navigate to a lot of folders on the disk.

[Jason]

I think I found the reason for the issue. Catalina moves any folders in the root directory of the computer into this folder: /Users/Shared/Relocated Items.

This effected some of my folders, so I will have to update everything in my Matlab path definition file unfortunately.

Answer 9

[Feiran li]

Have the same problem Matlab2019b macOs Catalina 10.15.3. solved the problem by blocking Dropbox from System Preferences --> Security & Privacy --> Privacy --> Accessibility.

[Matteo Seclì]

Had the same problem and indeed after closing Dropbox I was able to run MATLAB.

[Ifeoma Nwogu]

Actually, for me, blocking Dropbox wasn't enough, I had to remove it by clicking on the "-" sign on the Accessibility tab. I can always add it back using the "+" sign, but for now, I'm just glad to see my MATLAB up and workig again. I am using Matlab2019b as well.

[George A.]

I had to remove the app Contexts. Dropbox is ok for me.

With Contexts enabled I have to delete the folder "~/Library/Application\ Support/MathWorks/MATLAB/R2019b/" before opening Matlab.

Answer 10

[Brian Taylor]

I have multiple screens and a laptop, Matlab refuses to go past the spash screen. I have discovered that by unplugging all of the extra screens that it will start. Would be nice to get this bug fixed.

Answer 11

[Jonathan Lilly]

A perhaps similar issue for me. Matlab 2019b was working, but there was a strange bug which is that I was unable to select text with the mouse in Matlab, which I do all the time. After reading this thread, I traced the problem to a window-sizing software called Magnet that I had recently installed. This solved the problem. Thanks!

Answer 12

[Philip Slaymaker]

I had a similar issue with Matlab 2019b (Matlab 2019a worked fine) not finishing initializing the command window and then freezing, requiring a force quit of Matlab. This happened on both Mojave 10.14.6 and High Sierra 10.13.6 on the iMac 27 2019 and 2017, respectively. I found that quitting and not running Default Folder 5.4.1 at all (or earlier versions) allowed Matlab to load and run. Rerunning Default Folder while Matlab was running caused Matlab windows to freeze.

Answer 13

[Andriy Yabluchanskiy]

i found that the problem, at least on my end, is somehow connected to the network in my institution. matlab runs fine when on my home network but always freezes on splash screen when at work

macOs Catalina 10.15.1

Matlab 2019b

Answer 14

[robin tournemenne]

I also have this problem. Among the list of possible conflicts with other softwares I see spectacle that I use basically always. Very annoying, please do something mathworks, now I need to work in the terminal witht he command matlab -nodesktop...

Answer 15

[Selene Schmittling]

So, for the last few months, I have basically resorted to unloading Spectacle whenever I use MATLAB and not loading it again until I've close MATLAB.

This is extremely annoying but certainly less annoying than the unending spinning pinwheel of death.

Since using this procedure, I have not encountered any freezing issues. I have not checked whether OneDrive or Google File Stream continue to be issues. I will try to remember to do that and report back.

Regards,

S

Answer 16

[Yiqian Qian]

For my case, it conflicts with Google Drive Backup & Sync.app. when i quit Google Drive, it can be launched succesfully.

Answer 17

[Mickey London]

The feedback of disabling accessibility applications worked for me. The App the caused the issue was Magnets.

When checked out, Matlab stopped hanging.

Thanks

Answer 18

[Sangjae]

I have same problem, MATLAB 2020a & MacOS Catalina

[Zoran Popovic]

Running Matlab R2020a and Default Folder X 5.4.6 on Catalina v10.15.5. No problems after following Jon Gotow's tip above - https://se.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/480796-not-responding-on-startup-macos-mojave#answer_398840

[Sangjae]

Thanks!, I tried removing all items checked in the accessibility,

but, unfortunately, it doesn't work in my case.

when I checked the syslog (/var/log/system), it said

com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.mathworks.matlab.19992[1601]): Service exited with abnormal code: 1

Answer 19

[Stefan Baginski]

My solution to this and the only one which allowed me to start MATLAB again was to delete the ~/Library/Application Support/MathWorks/MATLAB/R2020a

Afterwards MATLAB started again but unfortunately your settings are gone. So I recommend to make a copy of the folder just in case. But so far I was not able to figure out which file is causing the issue.

[Stefan Baginski]

Also I found now another solution which worked for me and is just that after starting MATLAB I switch to another program like Finder and let MATLAB start in the background. This was also mentioned here:

https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/480796-not-responding-on-startup-macos-mojave#comment_981482

[Jayasubba Reddy Yarava]

Thank you Stefan, your suggestion worked for me.

Also I found now another solution which worked for me and is just that after starting MATLAB I switch to another program like Finder and let MATLAB start in the background. This was also mentioned here:

[Dave]

Yes, this was mentioned above, and it works for me. Easy but not very satisfying.

Answer 20

[Toby Driscoll]

For me the key was adding MATLAB to System Prefs / Security & Privacy / Accessibility. I'm running DFX, Dropbox, Google Drive Stream, and Spectacle–did not have to change those.

(This is for release 2020a on Catalina.)

[Stefan Baginski]

I did that actually before I've used the background start methodology without success,

Best, S.

[Dave]

Yes, this did not work for me either.

Answer 21

[Griffin Willis]

This has been happening to me too, I've figured out a way around it by simply going into your documents and opening a matlab file from your folders to launch matlab that way.

[Jon Sporring]

I just had this problem with R2020b (9.9.01467703) on macOS Catalina (10.15.7). It was solved by starting /Applications/MATLAB_R2020b.app/bin/matlab from a terminal (with full disk access) once. Now Matlab does not hang, when I start it from Finder. Good luck.

Answer 22

[Brett Tofel]

Same on bug on 2020a for Mac Catalina as with 2020b above, and same fix, but I remember this dumb bug from like 2018? This should really get fixed!

Answer 23

[Guo Jack]

I tried above advices but it's still not working. I found another solution from

https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/501420-i-installed-and-activated-matlab-on-macos-catalina-but-it-s-not-opening

This is what I did:

1) Open terminal and type (you need to change the version in the following command line)

/Applications/MATLAB_R2020a.app/bin/matlab -nodesktop

2) Type “desktop” when matlab starts

3) Go to desktop matlab preference. Under "general", change the initial working folder to another one and it workded for me.

I benefit a lot seeking solutions for matlab issues and want to thank you all in this forum.

Hope it helps for y'all.

Answer 24

[ting]

Most likely it is due to conflicts with other software, especially plugins such as keyboardholder. By opening the monitor and closing them one by one, you can usually identify the conflicting plugin.