Variables Window unusable in Matlab 2025

Unfortunately, the switch to MATLAB 2025 has made the Variable Editor unusable. This is due to two issues:

1. Variables are not displayed immediately in the Variable Editor. When double-clicking a variable in the workspace, sometimes one and sometimes two windows open—one of which is always empty and shows a loading circle.
2. When using copy-paste, entire rows or columns are no longer copied. Instead, only a portion is copied, which changes simply by scrolling within the Variable Editor.

As a result, I can no longer use MATLAB effectively, since I frequently need to copy and move large sets of measurement data.

Is this a known issue, or is my PC simply too old/slow/faulty?

Best regards,

Jan

[dpb]

Submit this to Mathworks as an official support request/bug at <Product Support Page>

[Harald]

Update 1 was recently released. If you have not done so yet, check the bell icon in the upper right to see if the update release is available to you.

If you are already using Update 1 or the issues persist after updating, consider proceeding as suggested by @dpb.

[Axel Heußer]

Same problem here. I'm considering downgrading to 24.

I don't think it's related to the hardware. My machine is quite powerful. I'm running Windows 10.

Like you, I also hate the new selection/highlighting tool. Stop "repairing" or "updating" features that are just fine!

[Jan]

Hi Alex,

I downgraded to Matlab 2024 without regrets.

I recently submited the bug to the product support page, but I won't go back to Matlab 2025. I'll just wait for the next major update.

[Natan]

I’m experiencing the same issue.

It seems like a bug: when you open a non-object variable successfully, you can then open an object variable by double-clicking. But if that doesn’t work, you need to right-click and choose Open, which does work.

This is very inconvenient.

[Mingqi]

This happens on Mac OS also. Variables could not be open by double click, and cannot be open by right click-> open. I encounted this bug in both MATLAB 2025a and b.

[Wolfgang]

I experienced exactly the same issue with both versions of Matlab.

[Mingqi]

I think the reason could be that MATLAB turned to new UI framwork since version 2025a. Many things does not work, and still not fixed

[Bruce Rodenborn]

Yep. 2025 was not ready for primetime. We are the beta (alpha?) testers for this floundering mess. The 2025 "upgrade" is the worst thing I have seen since 2008 when I started using MATLAB.

[dpb]

It is irrevocable that Mathworks is committed to the new desktop going forward. I would recommend <What's behind the new desktop> to get a viewpoint from the developer's perspective.

That said, submit complaints and/or enhancement requests officially at <Product Support Page> in order for there to be any chance at all of them making changes in appearance and/or functionality. Answers isn't an official channel so complaints/suggestions posted here may or may not be seen and it's unlikely would ever get into the enhancement list otherwise.

[Mingqi]

The new GUI looks like some sort of Webview framework. I am curious if this framework cost more memory as did by similar frameworks such as Electron.

[Amir]

The number of bugs in 2025 release is so large, no one can even take a stab at reporting. It is disfunctional. My guess is you are using some AI to change everything so quickly and you are counting on the users to be your testers. I am using the latest dell Percision with the best CPU and GPU and 64 GB of ram, and I need to wait hours for scripts that used to take minutes. Mathworks is not the only company struggling with this, latest IOS update has made my i-phone disfuctional. At least matlab has the courtsey of letting us downgrade. with I-phone, I am going to fix my old I-phones hardware issue and never let it update again. My windows 11 just takes clicks whenever it feels like it (even when matlab is closed). Please stop using LLMs for product development.

Answer 1

[James Owen]

For the two classes of Variable Editor issue reported here from Jan and Natan:

1. Various Issues with opening the Variable Editor:

Thank you for bringing these issues to our attention. Our development team is actively qualifying a fix for this issue now. Please check back or set an alert on this post to be made aware of when the fix is available.

2. Copy and paste issues:

The essence of the problem is that when you copy to the clipboard, we initially 1) Copy the part of the data that is rendered into the viewport. 2) Sometime later the true full precision data is copied by MATLAB onto the system clipboard. If the paste operation happens between events 1 and 2 the pasted data may not be complete. One workaround to consider is just to wait for event 2 to happen before pasting. If the copied data is very large this can be time consuming though, so we recognize that it’s not always ideal

Our development team is closely reviewing this issue and considering solutions. Please check back or set an alert on this post to be made aware of when a fix is available.

Answer 2

[Andreas Goser]

First of all, let me say I am sorry to see you are running into this issue.

A few general remarks about upgrading/downgrading: You can and are encouraged to install releases in parallel. While most projects update smoothly, sure, sometimes you may run into issues. Here you can keep your (somewhat) older release for your productive work and migrate to a higher relase and if needed for with MathWorks support to address issues.

At user "Jan". MathWorks Technical Support received your service request and I just spoke with the engineer who is looking into it. You will be contacted through the service request.

[Federico]

I've been a MatLab enthusiast for many years (even though I'm a home user), so I'm sorry to confirm that there are bugs in release 2025: if I close the Variables window, it doesn't reopen when I double-click a variable in the workspace, and similarly, if I delete a variable from the Variables window, it's impossible to redisplay the same variable. I don't intend to revert to release 2024, but it would be nice to have these bugs fixed as soon as possible. Thanks.

[dpb]

@Federico -- if you have other uses that are buggy, submit them to Mathworks as an official support request/bug at <Product Support Page>. If they (Mathworks) don't have the specific bug and how it is created in their database, it may not be found. Answers is not an official TMW support avenue so it may be missed if only here.

[Andreas Goser]

One piece of motivation to report bugs to MathWorks as opposed to hoping others already did:

On a regular basis, I see bugs where I am under the impression "This must impact a number of users!", and when I dive in, I find out it was reported by exactly one person only...

[Neil Judell]

Still a problem on 12 Jan 2026. I've filed multiple bug reports. Still problematic.

[Miriam]

Same here. Still problematic!!!

[Neil Judell]

R2026A prerelease has similar but different bugs. I'm sorry, but the revamp going R2024b-> later is a huge step backward for the ability to debug code. The ability to open a variable and modify it while running in debug is crucial.

[Neil Judell]

Hey! It seems to be related closely to having undocked variables window. If docked variables window, problem seems to not occur. Might be video driver interaction? I'm using NVIDIA driver for dell laptop on one machine, and NVIDIA latest studio driver on the other.