Matlab slow startup on the first time, much faster subsequently

When I open Matlab R2022a for the first time after I turn on my pc it takes 2 minutes to start. That does not mean I open the program just after I start my pc, it can be even hours later, provided that it is the first time after the pc was turned on.

Then, if I exit and reopen the program, it takes 10 seconds to start. I open it by using -c command, using the correct path to my license file. That does not help.

Matlab is installed on a HDD, whereas the license files are on a SSD.

Here are the times

MATLAB Startup Performance Metrics (In Seconds)

total item gap description

=========================================================

0.00 0.00 0.00 MATLAB script

16.69 16.69 0.00 main

16.91 0.23 -0.00 Session Initialize

18.55 0.00 1.63 Toolbox cache load Start

18.55 1.17 0.47 Session Initialize

21.20 2.65 18.55 cachepath

25.77 3.01 22.76 LM Startup

26.51 0.15 0.60 splash

64.53 0.51 37.51 Constant Initialization

65.60 39.00 0.08 Engine Startup

67.54 1.92 0.03 InitSunVM

99.27 31.15 0.58 PostVMInit

99.38 33.77 0.02 mljInit

100.36 0.98 0.00 StartDesktop

100.67 35.05 0.02 Java initialization

108.50 2.80 5.04 psParser

108.58 0.00 0.08 Toolbox cache join

116.55 0.80 7.17 matlabpath

120.62 0.77 3.30 matlabrc

129.96 29.59 100.37 Init Desktop

131.25 30.88 100.37 Ready

=========================================================

Items shown account for 73.0% of total startup time

MATLAB Startup Performance Metrics (In Seconds)

total item gap description

=========================================================

0.00 0.00 0.00 MATLAB script

0.28 0.28 0.00 main

0.32 0.03 0.00 Session Initialize

0.50 0.00 0.19 Toolbox cache load Start

0.50 0.11 0.08 Session Initialize

0.60 0.03 0.57 LM Startup

0.76 0.00 0.15 splash

0.78 0.28 0.50 cachepath

3.52 0.16 2.60 Constant Initialization

3.54 2.78 0.00 Engine Startup

3.68 0.14 0.00 InitSunVM

6.37 2.61 0.08 PostVMInit

6.38 2.83 0.00 mljInit

6.40 0.02 0.00 StartDesktop

6.40 2.86 0.00 Java initialization

6.54 0.00 0.14 psParser

6.54 0.00 0.01 Toolbox cache join

7.43 0.66 0.23 matlabpath

7.53 0.01 0.09 matlabrc

8.44 0.00 0.90 SettingsConstructorLoadingFiles

8.44 0.00 0.90 SettingsConstructorLoadingFiles

9.58 3.18 6.40 Init Desktop

9.77 3.37 6.40 Ready

=========================================================

Items shown account for 99.9% of total startup time

[Jan]

How many toolboxes are inside your path? Is this a full installation? Do you need all toolboxes?

Check the task manager of the operating system. If the HDD is at 100% during the first run, you know the bottleneck. After the files are read the first time, the data are store in the caches of the operating system and of the HDD, so accessing them afterwards is expected to be much faster.

Check the integrity of the hard disk and the file system. Defragment the disk such that all files of the Matlab folder are written side by side (e.g. with MyDefragGUI). Think about installing Matlab on a SSD.

[Walter Roberson]

Do you have the startup accelerator enabled or disabled ?

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/matlab_env/configure-the-matlab-startup-accelerator.html

[Jan]

As far as I understand, the startup accelerator starts the initialization at the login in of the user automatically. This means, that the rest of the startup process is slowed down. Therefore I've disabled the startup acceleration: when I login and start Matlab immediately, no time is saved. And when I want to use the computer for something else, this is slowed down by the initialization of Matlab in the background. The only benefit occurs, if I login, go in the kitchen to drink a cup of coffee, come back after a few minutes and start Matlab. Then the visible startup is in fact much faster.

Sigh. I do not like this automatic wasting of time and energy based on the mystic assumption, that I want to start Matlab sometimes later.

Is there an international version of the "Tante Erna"-benchmark? I want to write a short letter thanking aunt Erna for a gift. The total time matters from pressing the On-button until the letter is written on paper. Of couse, pencil and paper wins. The 2nd winner is ab IBM XT with DOS 3 and a simple text editor. Win 11, Office 2019 and Matlab's startup accelerator running in the background are not impressive even on a Intel i9 12'000 and an SSD.

[Walter Roberson]

Yes, the startup accelerator slows down boot time, but then each launch of MATLAB should be faster than it would otherwise be. In theory.

If you are doing other things before starting MATLAB, then in theory running the startup in the background at reduced priority "shouldn't" be noticable.

[Luca Martino]

I checked my disk integrity with CHKDSK, nothing showed up. When I open matlab and it is very slow, my disk usage in task manager is 30-40%. I have installed matlab and simulink. I don't think it is a full installation, but I have almost everything of simulink. I can try to uninstall those and see what happens.

[Han Na]

Have the same problem on Linux (ubuntu 22.04)

[Luca Martino]

I fixed the problem by reinstalling everything on the C: drive (SSD). I don't think the problem was the HDD, I bet for some reasons Matlab wanted to be installed under the main drive. I didn't try to install it under another SSD, tough.

[Bruno Luong]

The automatic startup accelerator of MATLAB resseble to a bloadware.

I spend enough time to disable Apps, services, task scheduler of WIndows, and now MATLAB. Especially this one come back after an update. TMW MUST give an option for user to control the startup and leave it there.My computer is used for many other things and not only to drink coffee when MATLAB is starting as Jan rightly points out the advantage.