Why do buttons, apps, or the editor in MATLAB respond slowly or hang on MacOS?

I am using MATLAB R2019a and MATLAB R2018b with MacOS High Sierra, and I am seeing performance issues with many UI interactions such as the following:

- Really slow responses (4-5 seconds) when pressing buttons such as 'Run' and 'New'

- Lag when re-positioning the text cursor in a script file via mouse click (or highlighting sections of text)

- Lag or a freeze when interacting with some apps such as the Color Thresholder or Image Viewer apps

I did not face these issues with MATLAB R2018a

How do I solve this issue?

Answer 1

[MathWorks Support Team]

This issue can be caused by the incompatibility of Magnet App, BetterTouchTool, or similar window-snapping apps with MATLAB on macOS. It has been observed with R2019a, R2019b and R2020a Prerelease on High Sierra and Catalina macOS. For Magnet, asking the program to ignore MATLAB may resolve the issue.

This can also be due to applications like Text Expander and Phase Express.

 

To work around the issue, please try one of the following solutions to see if it resolves the issue:

1) Switch MATLAB to use OpenJDK™ 8 (Hot Spot) version of JRE that can be downloaded from the following link:

https://github.com/AdoptOpenJDK/openjdk8-binaries/releases/download/jdk8u222-b10/OpenJDK8U-jdk_x64_mac_hotspot_8u222b10.tar.gz

To switch the JRE that MATLAB is using:

1. (Recommended) Rename <matlabroot>/sys/java/jre/maci64/jre to <matlabroot>/sys/java/jre/maci64/jre_bak.
2. Copy the content of <jre_root>/Contents/Home to <matlabroot>/sys/java/jre/maci64/.
3. Confirm the operation by finding “java” executable in the path <matlabroot>/sys/java/jre/maci64/jre/bin/java.
4. Launch MATLAB and verify the JRE version with “version -java”.  The output should include “AdoptOpenJDK”.

2) Switch MATLAB to use the JetBrains version of JRE that can be downloaded from the following link:

https://bintray.com/jetbrains/intellij-jdk/download_file?file_path=jbrex8u152b845.3_osx_x64.tar.gz

Installing the version of JRE linked above may cause JAVA errors in MATLAB. However, these errors should not have any side effects.

3) If you are using a multi-monitor setup, moving MATLAB to a secondary monitor may prevent the issue. However, moving MATLAB back to the primary monitor may cause the issue to recur.

4) Consider switching to Spectacle. Performance regressions have not been reported on this App thus far. Find more information on the Spectacle App in the link below:

https://www.spectacleapp.com/

5) You should be able to use keyboard shortcuts with no delays.

6) Closing the window-snapping app and restarting MATLAB may solve this issue. This has been seen to be effective for many past instances of similar behavior.

Alternately, you might also be able to work around this incompatibility by disabling some functionality in the window-snapping app you are using or changing its settings to ignore MATLAB. 

For instance, we have seen that BetterTouchTool can be left running, but the "Window Snapping" feature must be disabled for MATLAB to function properly. If quitting the app resolved the issue, you may want to try to disable the "Window Snapping" feature and restart MATLAB, if it is more convenient for your workflow.

[Christian]

MATLAB Answer for slow toolstrip/editor

This Answer also deals with the same issue and mentions that Spectacle is an alternative. Otherwise, you can tell Magnet to ignore MATLAB and this should work.

[Jason]

Given MATLAB R2018B is the only app which I have this problem with on Mac Mojave I assume this is a MATLAB bug and you are working to fix it? I would like to be able to use MATLAB with Magnet.

[Fernando Postigo]

I completely agree, MATLAB R2018B is the only app which I have this problem so I hope that you fix it in new updates. Magnet is a pretty useful tool and I would like to use it with MATLAB. This lag is really annoying

[Wolfgang Polifke]

Same problem here - this bug is not yet fixed (as of March 2019), with OS X 10.13.6, Matlab R2018b Update 3 and Magnet 2.4.2.

Disabling Magnet for Matlab is a workaround - no more, no less...

[Mark Sena]

Similar issue here. When switching from the figure window to the editor, it takes several seconds before the editor becomes responsive and I can start typing (or get a cursor). Really annoying.

I use Divvy for window snapping. I turned it off and restarted MATLAB. Didn't help.

I also turned off the interactive plotting toolbar. Didn't help.

Additionally sometimes I lose the ability to type in the editor alltogether (related issue?). Has anyone else experienced this?

I'm really dissappointed in these recent releases. Going back to 2017 if this can't be resolved.

[Diego Ortiz Mariscal]

Just close Divvy completely before even starting matlab

[Ricardo Gorinstein]

I am using Magnet and by ignoring Matlab, I solved the issue!

I am on macOS Catalina 10.15.4 using Magnet 2.4.5 and both MATLAB 2019b and 2020a. Here is what I did: while MATLAB is the active app, I clicked on magnet in the toolbar and selected 'Ignore "MATLAB"'. That's it.

Thanks for the help!

[Shweta Singh]

Hi Mark,

If you are still facing the issue, please reach out to MathWorks Technical Support by using the following link and they will be able to assist you further:

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

Thanks,

Shweta Singh

[Madhur Tiwari]

Turning off all window snapping apps worked for me. I was using an app called Cinch, its not mentioned anywhere else so I thought its not causing any issues but it was.

[Yunes Chehade]

thank you very much!!!

[Lei Zhang]

Would 2020b resolve this issue? I am using Magnet, and I am able to work around the issue by telling the app to ignore Matlab. However, it does not always work. It seems that sometimes it takes several seconds for Magnet to respond when I switch to Matlab.

Matlab is the only app I am having this issue, and it's been two years. I am surprised that it still has not been resolved.

[Jonah Pearl]

I had this issue using Magnet -- telling Magnet to ignore MATLAB seems to work well.

[Gimin Kim]

Thanks a lot. I had this issue while using Magnet in Big Sur and Catalina both with R2020a. Simply ignoring MATLAB solved it.

[Davide Raggini]

Thanks a lot; this solved my issue with Magnet with R2020a and R2020b on Catalina.

Given MATLAB is the only app that has this problem on Mac Catalina and the late R2017b didn't have the issue, are you working to fix it? It's quite annoying as I would like to be able to use MATLAB with Magnet.

[Jonathan Jacobs]

There are still other important Mac utilities that MATLAB has been interfering with.

Jon Gotow, the developer of "DefaultFolder X" has attempted to address this, and has stated the problem lies with a mistake The MathWorks has made interacting with the macOS's Accessibility API, which is necessary to allow MATLAB to control actions Finder. You can read the discussion here: https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/480796-not-responding-on-startup-macos-mojave#answer_398840?s_tid=prof_contriblnk

The only solution is for TMW to fix their bug, not for users to have to decide how to cripple their workflows to accomodate a year-old-plus problem.

[Nicolas Petit]

magnet was the issue on my setup. Simply added "igone matlab" in magnet menu, and it works now

[Martin Hito]

Fixed my issue completely, Magnet was the culprit. Thanks!

[Mads]

I used 1) to fix the issues (seemingly) in R2019b, R2021b and MacOSX Big Sur

[Xiaokai Xia]

I used the second method to solve my issue.

So all of it just about the java JER in Matlab?

[nivek88]

It's sad how the Mathworks Inc. is letting Mac users down. This problem is a known issue since 2018. It's 2021 and in R2021a there is STILL NO FIX to this issue. Changing the java version will cause more problems since my matlab R2021a is displaying me various java errors and this revision is crashing several times a day since changing the java version.

Furthermore I have to accept incoming network connections each time I open MATLAB. This is an issue since 2017 and STILL NO FIX for that as well.

This is really bad and not acceptable since this software isn't cheap and it should be usable out of the box for any platform. If you can't offer a RUNNING software for macOS don't offer a crappy software for macOS.

[Fred Wagen]

Not sure it is related but Matlab R2021a Update 4 becomes sluggish after I double-click and use "Help on ..." to open the help window.

MacOS BigSur 11.5.2 (just upgraded 2021.08.19) but does not help.

I have this issue since upgrading to BigSur.

MathWorks Technical Support knows but looks like they need our help to reproduce the problems (MathWorks Technical Support ref:_00Di0Ha1u._5003q1QMykc:ref)

[Gabriele Torri]

Thanks, this saved me! I had the same issue and I was almost ready to install bootcamp and buy a windows licence only to solve this problem :D

"ignore MATLAB" in Rectangle solved the problem, and now everything works as expected

[Kazuhiro Maeda]

I gave up using Magnet. Now, I'm using Multitouch, which has a window snapping feature and works fine with R2021a. However, I think it's so funny that users need to switch or throw away their apps, just to use MATLAB. MathWorks devs, please fix this.

[Yi Ge]

Unbelievable! How do you know that I'm using Magnet!! Solved!

Answer 2

[Steve Myers]

All I did was tell Magnet to "Ignore MATLAB" and it resolved the issue for me.

EDIT: Still laggy when you switch windows to another app then come back to MATLAB like that, quitting Magnet will fix that if it's bothersome.

[Eduardo Massieu]

Worked for me too. I have MacOS High Sierra

[Spencer Kraisler]

How does one do that?

Answer 3

[Seb Biass]

Same problem here, latest 2018 MBP, OSX 10.14, Matlab 2018b. Pretty much any interaction with GUIs - either the Matlab interface or custom GUI crashes Matlab. No window management software installed. It worked fine on OSX 10.13.

Please fix?

Update: As a matter of fact it does not crash, it is just extremely slow. On a custom built GUI it takes about a minute to change from one field to another.

Update #2: I run 2018a on my iMac with 10.14 with both BetterTouch and Magnet installed and there is no problem whatsoever. It seems that this is more likely a Matlab problem than a Magnet....

[Shweta Singh]

Hi Seb,

If you are still facing the issue, please reach out to MathWorks Technical Support by using the following link and they will be able to assist you further:

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

Thanks,

Shweta Singh

Answer 4

[Elizabeth Kauffman]

Open it using the Terminal app and type in open -a MATLAB_R20***

It immediately made it a lot faster.

Answer 5

[Mingyu Son]

Had an issue of whole program stopping when trying to use zooming features of scope in simulink with R2021b, using on M1 macbook air, but just by simply quitting rectangle (any window adjusting program) and restarting the matlab fixed the issue for me.

[nivek88]

This is a WORKAROUND — NOT a FIX! Mathworks still needs to FIX that issue. All other macOS apps are working with window snapping tools. Sad, even 3.5 years and a lot of releases later!

[Kazuhiro Maeda]

I couldn't agree with you more. It seems that MathWorks is forcing us to throw away our favorite apps. This is their issue, not ours or other apps'. So, they need to fix it.

[Walter Roberson]

@Kazuhiro Maeda

As best I can tell, Apple made a change to the Accessibility interface in a way that can lead to an indefinite cycle of notifications if more than one program is using the interface for the same window, each program getting notified about the actions of the other programs. One program gets notified that the second program accessed the interface, the first program asks what the current situation is, the second program gets notified that the first used the interface, it asks, "Oh, what's the state now?", the first program gets notified that the second program is dealing with the state... infinite loop.

Fundamentally it was Apple's responsibility to create an interface in a way that prevented event storms and indefinite go-arounds (P changes the elements, Q changes them back, P changes them again... etc..)

Apple's response in the case of Apple-created problems about inner workings that Apple did not explicitly document, is almost always "Oh, we never promised that, it's your fault for relying on behaviour that worked for the last 15 years." Apple "rules-lawyers" their way out of responsibility. Or they just "I am altering the deal. Pray I do not alter it any further."

Answer 6

[Yelin Shan]

I know this problem, that's because I open a window-snapping apps which is a translation software. So just be sure that you don't open any window-snapping app.

Answer 7

[Peter Drummond]

I have a brand new iMac Pro, running a completely standard Catalina MacOS, and Matlab 2020 editing is often painfully slow. Relative to any previous Mac, it is very much slower, despite the much better hardware. It used to be said that Intel giveth and Microsoft taketh away. Now it seems that Apple giveth and The MathWorks taketh away. Currently, I'm mostly forced to edit on my freeware editor, due to extraordinarily slow Matlab editor.

Funny thing: Matlab is very expensive and freeware is, well, free.

[Ted Rogers]

Same problem here. Mathworks tech doesn't seem to have ever heard of issue in spite of plenty of threads mentioning it. very serious problem with 2021b running on macbook pro

[Gabriel Bronfman]

This is still a problem for me on 2022a. Simscape and SImulink is borderline unusable. So frustrating the Mathworks hasn't addressed this in over a year. I do not use a window management software and it still sucks. Maybe it has to do with Apple Silicon?

[nivek88]

Window management software is also still a huge problem in Matlab 2022b. Matlab immediately crash if you zoom into a scope window in Simulink. It is frustrating!

[Spencer Kraisler]

It's insane how mathworks refuses to fix any of these bugs.

[nivek88]

Definitely! I do get Java issues in the command line of MATLAB on macOS directly after a clean install of any MATLAB versions. Window management apps do not works with Matlab. Zooming in Scope windows in Simulink does crash the whole MATLAB instance. I do still use MATLAB 2017 since all these problems do not get faced. I know there are a lot of people stating the problem is macOS but why do other apps do not have any of these issues?

[Walter Roberson]

Because other apps DO have these issues. Apple mucked up an event notification protocol, leading to infinite notifications