MATLAB Central Newsreader - My files vanished

My files vanished

Florent Heidet — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 07:41:02 -0400

Hi,

I just installed Matlab 7 r14 on my new computer (Vista 64b) and it worked without a scratch.

But when I tried to go in my "work" directory to copy my files, I did not find them...!!
When within Matlab I do a "dir" or a "ls" Matlab sees the files in the directory.
I can open the files from Matlab, but I cannot access to them from the explorer!! (of course, I already unchecked the "Display hidden files" in my explorer)

Does anybody what is this problem due to (probably Vista)? And a way to solve it?

Thanks

Re: My files vanished

Dave Brackett — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 10:27:01 -0400

"Florent Heidet" <flox17@hotmail.com> wrote in message <gd46qe$lhj$1@fred.mathworks.com>...
> Hi,
>
> I just installed Matlab 7 r14 on my new computer (Vista 64b) and it worked without a scratch.
>
> But when I tried to go in my "work" directory to copy my files, I did not find them...!!
> When within Matlab I do a "dir" or a "ls" Matlab sees the files in the directory.
> I can open the files from Matlab, but I cannot access to them from the explorer!! (of course, I already unchecked the "Display hidden files" in my explorer)
>
> Does anybody what is this problem due to (probably Vista)? And a way to solve it?
>
> Thanks

have you checked that the address paths are identical? if you have installed the 64bit version of matlab it will probably have installed to C:\program files\ but if only the 32bit it will probably have installed to C:\program files(x86).

if you still can't find it try doing a search for it from within windows (start->search).

Re: My files vanished

Rune Allnor — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 10:45:55 -0400

On 15 Okt, 09:41, "Florent Heidet" <flo...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I just installed Matlab 7 r14 on my new computer (Vista 64b) and it worked without a scratch.
>
> But when I tried to go in my "work" directory to copy my files, I did not find them...!!
> When within Matlab I do a "dir" or a "ls" Matlab sees the files in the directory.
> I can open the files from Matlab, but I cannot access to them from the explorer!! (of course, I already unchecked the "Display hidden files" in my explorer)
>
> Does anybody what is this problem due to (probably Vista)? And a way to solve it?

This may have been altered by now, but a few years ago the
work directory was located in a release-specific location.
On my computer:

C:\Program Files\MATLAB\R2006a\work

So there is a chance that your files are located in a
different location than where you think they are.

Worse, unless you are very careful, there is a chance that
your files may be erased if you uninstal the present version
of matlab before you install the new one...

What I do to minimize the hazzle of upgrades is to only
have a startup.m file in the default directory and store
my matlab files on a different path:

C:\Documents and Settings\Eier\My Documents\matlab

The startup.m file then contains the statement

cd('C:\Documents and Settings\Eier\My Documents\matlab ')

which basically is transparent from release to release.

With the present twice-per-year version release frequency
one would expect TMW to streamline such issues so that
users experience as little hazzle as possible upon updates.

A tool to scan for existing GUI preferences aand settings,
as well as a transparent configurable location where to
store local files would come in very handy. But again,
my knowledge on the matter is a few years old, so these
issues might already have been addressed by now.

Rune

Re: My files vanished

Florent Heidet — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 19:07:02 -0400

I installed the 32bits version of Matlab so the instal directory is: C:\program files(x86)\MATLAB\

I verified the correspondance of the paths...everything is fine.

I did a search of my files, and they were found nowhere on the computer!!
However if I copy MATLAB files (eg. downloaded from Internet) in my work directory, when I am runing MATLAB, I see the new files (from Internet) and the old files (I created with MATLAB) in the same directory, but if I use the explorer, I see only the Internet files!

More funny: if I put manually in my work directory files with same name than the files I created within Matlab, then I can open the file I just copied, and when I am removing it, I can open the former file with the same name!!
It is like if there were a "gost directory" used to store files made by "my" Matlab, and a directory with the same name where I can copy files...

Any idea...?

Re: My files vanished

Dave Brackett — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 21:38:02 -0400

"Florent Heidet" <flox17@hotmail.com> wrote in message <gd5f0m$okr$1@fred.mathworks.com>...
> I installed the 32bits version of Matlab so the instal directory is: C:\program files(x86)\MATLAB\
>
> I verified the correspondance of the paths...everything is fine.
>
> I did a search of my files, and they were found nowhere on the computer!!
> However if I copy MATLAB files (eg. downloaded from Internet) in my work directory, when I am runing MATLAB, I see the new files (from Internet) and the old files (I created with MATLAB) in the same directory, but if I use the explorer, I see only the Internet files!
>
> More funny: if I put manually in my work directory files with same name than the files I created within Matlab, then I can open the file I just copied, and when I am removing it, I can open the former file with the same name!!
> It is like if there were a "gost directory" used to store files made by "my" Matlab, and a directory with the same name where I can copy files...
>
> Any idea...?

Can you copy out the files from the current directory window of matlab? paste them to the desktop or somewhere else known. Does that work?

Re: My files vanished

Florent Heidet — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 05:19:02 -0400

Dave,

Your solution is the one I have been using until now, but that is not really convenient...

I will maybe try to reinstal Matlab, or buy an upgraded version...

Re: My files vanished

Bruno Luong — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 05:32:01 -0400

"Florent Heidet" <flox17@hotmail.com> wrote in message <gd5f0m$okr$1@fred.mathworks.com>...

>
> Any idea...?

Check Windows "Control Panel -> Folder Options -> View" (or something like this) and make sure your files are not hidden by one of the checked configuration.

This is more likely OS.

Bruno

Re: My files vanished

Florent Heidet — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 06:58:02 -0400

"Bruno Luong" <b.luong@fogale.findmycountry> wrote in message <gd6jkh$24s$1@fred.mathworks.com>...
> "Florent Heidet" <flox17@hotmail.com> wrote in message <gd5f0m$okr$1@fred.mathworks.com>...
>
> >
> > Any idea...?
>
> Check Windows "Control Panel -> Folder Options -> View" (or something like this) and make sure your files are not hidden by one of the checked configuration.
>
> This is more likely OS.
>
> Bruno

I also checked that...unsuccessfully...

:-(

Re: My files vanished

Rune Allnor — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 07:52:46 -0400

On 17 Okt, 08:58, "Florent Heidet" <flo...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> "Bruno Luong" <b.lu...@fogale.findmycountry> wrote in message <gd6jkh$24...@fred.mathworks.com>...
> > "Florent Heidet" <flo...@hotmail.com> wrote in message <gd5f0m$ok...@fred.mathworks.com>...
>
> > > Any idea...?
>
> > Check Windows "Control Panel -> Folder Options -> View" (or something like this) and make sure your files are not hidden by one of the checked configuration.
>
> > This is more likely OS.
>
> > Bruno
>
> I also checked that...unsuccessfully...
>
> :-(

Did you try to store the files somewhere else and only have
the startup.m I showed you in the work directory?

Rune

Re: My files vanished

Gema Abrajano — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 07:39:01 -0400

"Florent Heidet" <flox17@hotmail.com> wrote in message <gd46qe$lhj$1@fred.mathworks.com>...
> Hi,
>
> I just installed Matlab 7 r14 on my new computer (Vista 64b) and it worked without a scratch.
>
> But when I tried to go in my "work" directory to copy my files, I did not find them...!!
> When within Matlab I do a "dir" or a "ls" Matlab sees the files in the directory.
> I can open the files from Matlab, but I cannot access to them from the explorer!! (of course, I already unchecked the "Display hidden files" in my explorer)
>
> Does anybody what is this problem due to (probably Vista)? And a way to solve it?
>
> Thanks

i am having the same problem.. im also using vista 32, and i installed r2006a.. basically it's the same, file can be viewed while on matlab window, but going to the work folder from my computer, the files are gone.. and i don't even get to copy the file and paste it in another directory, because the computer prompts me and say that the file is gone. hope someone will be able to help.

Re: My files vanished

Gema Abrajano — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 08:03:02 -0400

Rune Allnor <allnor@tele.ntnu.no> wrote in message <fe804dd8-ddcb-4ae8-b949-2d37bad0cd7a@h60g2000hsg.googlegroups.com>...
> On 17 Okt, 08:58, "Florent Heidet" <flo...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> > "Bruno Luong" <b.lu...@fogale.findmycountry> wrote in message <gd6jkh$24...@fred.mathworks.com>...
> > > "Florent Heidet" <flo...@hotmail.com> wrote in message <gd5f0m$ok...@fred.mathworks.com>...
> >
> > > > Any idea...?
> >
> > > Check Windows "Control Panel -> Folder Options -> View" (or something like this) and make sure your files are not hidden by one of the checked configuration.
> >
> > > This is more likely OS.
> >
> > > Bruno
> >
> > I also checked that...unsuccessfully...
> >
> > :-(
>
> Did you try to store the files somewhere else and only have
> the startup.m I showed you in the work directory?
>
> Rune

i did what you advised - creating a new folder and then just leaving the startup.m in the work directory.. then i changed my current directory in matlab from work to the new folder that i created.. it's working and everything seems to be fine now since i can access the new files generated by matlab, so thank you for this..

but i have a newb question to ask.. isn't the work folder some sort of the default folder for matlab, therefore would i be having problems in the future for some other files going into the work directory? or is it that since my current directory is already the new directory that i created, then i wouldn't have to worry about the old work directory anymore? and what's the use of the startup.m file left there? sorry if this is such a newb question, thanks for the help!

Re: My files vanished

Rune Allnor — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 10:00:59 -0400

On 22 Okt, 10:03, "Gema Abrajano" <gdabraj...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Rune Allnor <all...@tele.ntnu.no> wrote in message <fe804dd8-ddcb-4ae8-b949-2d37bad0c...@h60g2000hsg.googlegroups.com>...
> > On 17 Okt, 08:58, "Florent Heidet" <flo...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> > > "Bruno Luong" <b.lu...@fogale.findmycountry> wrote in message <gd6jkh$24...@fred.mathworks.com>...
> > > > "Florent Heidet" <flo...@hotmail.com> wrote in message <gd5f0m$ok...@fred.mathworks.com>...
>
> > > > > Any idea...?
>
> > > > Check Windows "Control Panel -> Folder Options -> View" (or something like this) and make sure your files are not hidden by one of the checked configuration.
>
> > > > This is more likely OS.
>
> > > > Bruno
>
> > > I also checked that...unsuccessfully...
>
> > > :-(
>
> > Did you try to store the files somewhere else and only have
> > the startup.m I showed you in the work directory?
>
> > Rune
>
> i did what you advised - creating a new folder and then just leaving the startup.m in the work directory.. then i changed my current directory in matlab from work to the new folder that i created.. it's working and everything seems to be fine now since i can access the new files generated by matlab, so thank you for this..
>
> but i have a newb question to ask.. isn't the work folder some sort of the default folder for matlab, therefore would i be having problems in the future for some other files going into the work directory?

MATLABROOT/work is the default directrory and where users are
supposed
to store their files, but there are two problems with it (as it
appeared
on R2006a and before):

- On the window platform it resides in the C:\Program files folder,
  which is a place where users should not need to mess around
- There are (was) different work directores for different versions
  of matlab, so you will have (had) to move all your files to
  the new work directory every time you update matlab.

> or is it that since my current directory is already the new directory that i created, then i wouldn't have to worry about the old work directory anymore?

What you want as a user is to update your matlab lisences with
at little fuzz as possible. In principle this should be as
easy as

1) Uninstall the present matlab version
2) Install the new matlab version

and everything should remain the same way it was the
last time you shut down the old version when you start
the new version for the first time.

In practice, you have to (at least up to and including
R2006a) move the work directory into a new place and
maybe also the preferences directory. Not a big deal,
but lots of users don't know how to do that. And there
is no reason they should need to, as matlab should be
able to use old setup-files when a noew version is
installed. It'a a trivial thing to do for the programmers,
but it has to be done.

So you as user wants to minimize the hazzle. One way of
doing that is to make a folder e.g. under 'My Documents'
where you store your matlab-related stuff. Since it is
not in the standard matlab hierarchy, matlab doesn't
know about this folder, and thus can't mess with it
when you uninstall matlab.

> and what's the use of the startup.m file left there?

The matlab looks for a startup.m file in the work
directory every time it starts up. So any instructions
inside that file are executed automatically.

Since you have stored all your files in a place
matlab doesn't know about, you need to let matlab
know where to look for files and set the working
directory (note the difference between 'work
directory' and 'working directory'). The CD command
makes matlab set your local directory as the
working directory.

Rune

Re: My files vanished

Gema Abrajano — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 06:55:03 -0400

Rune Allnor <allnor@tele.ntnu.no> wrote in message <7ff82278-f89d-4bf4-a7c6-ccbfefa4c171@k16g2000hsf.googlegroups.com>...
> On 22 Okt, 10:03, "Gema Abrajano" <gdabraj...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> > Rune Allnor <all...@tele.ntnu.no> wrote in message <fe804dd8-ddcb-4ae8-b949-2d37bad0c...@h60g2000hsg.googlegroups.com>...
> > > On 17 Okt, 08:58, "Florent Heidet" <flo...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> > > > "Bruno Luong" <b.lu...@fogale.findmycountry> wrote in message <gd6jkh$24...@fred.mathworks.com>...
> > > > > "Florent Heidet" <flo...@hotmail.com> wrote in message <gd5f0m$ok...@fred.mathworks.com>...
> >
> > > > > > Any idea...?
> >
> > > > > Check Windows "Control Panel -> Folder Options -> View" (or something like this) and make sure your files are not hidden by one of the checked configuration.
> >
> > > > > This is more likely OS.
> >
> > > > > Bruno
> >
> > > > I also checked that...unsuccessfully...
> >
> > > > :-(
> >
> > > Did you try to store the files somewhere else and only have
> > > the startup.m I showed you in the work directory?
> >
> > > Rune
> >
> > i did what you advised - creating a new folder and then just leaving the startup.m in the work directory.. then i changed my current directory in matlab from work to the new folder that i created.. it's working and everything seems to be fine now since i can access the new files generated by matlab, so thank you for this..
> >
> > but i have a newb question to ask.. isn't the work folder some sort of the default folder for matlab, therefore would i be having problems in the future for some other files going into the work directory?
>
> MATLABROOT/work is the default directrory and where users are
> supposed
> to store their files, but there are two problems with it (as it
> appeared
> on R2006a and before):
>
> - On the window platform it resides in the C:\Program files folder,
> which is a place where users should not need to mess around
> - There are (was) different work directores for different versions
> of matlab, so you will have (had) to move all your files to
> the new work directory every time you update matlab.
>
> > or is it that since my current directory is already the new directory that i created, then i wouldn't have to worry about the old work directory anymore?
>
> What you want as a user is to update your matlab lisences with
> at little fuzz as possible. In principle this should be as
> easy as
>
> 1) Uninstall the present matlab version
> 2) Install the new matlab version
>
> and everything should remain the same way it was the
> last time you shut down the old version when you start
> the new version for the first time.
>
> In practice, you have to (at least up to and including
> R2006a) move the work directory into a new place and
> maybe also the preferences directory. Not a big deal,
> but lots of users don't know how to do that. And there
> is no reason they should need to, as matlab should be
> able to use old setup-files when a noew version is
> installed. It'a a trivial thing to do for the programmers,
> but it has to be done.
>
> So you as user wants to minimize the hazzle. One way of
> doing that is to make a folder e.g. under 'My Documents'
> where you store your matlab-related stuff. Since it is
> not in the standard matlab hierarchy, matlab doesn't
> know about this folder, and thus can't mess with it
> when you uninstall matlab.
>
> > and what's the use of the startup.m file left there?
>
> The matlab looks for a startup.m file in the work
> directory every time it starts up. So any instructions
> inside that file are executed automatically.
>
> Since you have stored all your files in a place
> matlab doesn't know about, you need to let matlab
> know where to look for files and set the working
> directory (note the difference between 'work
> directory' and 'working directory'). The CD command
> makes matlab set your local directory as the
> working directory.
>
> Rune

thanks for these! everything seems to be working fine now. hope florent will be able to solve the problems also. thanks!

Re: My files vanished

Ned Fox — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 16:42:02 -0500

"Gema Abrajano" <gdabrajano@yahoo.com> wrote in message <gdp747$1m0$1@fred.mathworks.com>...
> Rune Allnor <allnor@tele.ntnu.no> wrote in message <7ff82278-f89d-4bf4-a7c6-ccbfefa4c171@k16g2000hsf.googlegroups.com>...
> > On 22 Okt, 10:03, "Gema Abrajano" <gdabraj...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> > > Rune Allnor <all...@tele.ntnu.no> wrote in message <fe804dd8-ddcb-4ae8-b949-2d37bad0c...@h60g2000hsg.googlegroups.com>...
> > > > On 17 Okt, 08:58, "Florent Heidet" <flo...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> > > > > "Bruno Luong" <b.lu...@fogale.findmycountry> wrote in message <gd6jkh$24...@fred.mathworks.com>...
> > > > > > "Florent Heidet" <flo...@hotmail.com> wrote in message <gd5f0m$ok...@fred.mathworks.com>...
> > >
> > > > > > > Any idea...?
> > >
> > > > > > Check Windows "Control Panel -> Folder Options -> View" (or something like this) and make sure your files are not hidden by one of the checked configuration.
> > >
> > > > > > This is more likely OS.
> > >
> > > > > > Bruno
> > >
> > > > > I also checked that...unsuccessfully...
> > >
> > > > > :-(
> > >
> > > > Did you try to store the files somewhere else and only have
> > > > the startup.m I showed you in the work directory?
> > >
> > > > Rune
> > >
> > > i did what you advised - creating a new folder and then just leaving the startup.m in the work directory.. then i changed my current directory in matlab from work to the new folder that i created.. it's working and everything seems to be fine now since i can access the new files generated by matlab, so thank you for this..
> > >
> > > but i have a newb question to ask.. isn't the work folder some sort of the default folder for matlab, therefore would i be having problems in the future for some other files going into the work directory?
> >
> > MATLABROOT/work is the default directrory and where users are
> > supposed
> > to store their files, but there are two problems with it (as it
> > appeared
> > on R2006a and before):
> >
> > - On the window platform it resides in the C:\Program files folder,
> > which is a place where users should not need to mess around
> > - There are (was) different work directores for different versions
> > of matlab, so you will have (had) to move all your files to
> > the new work directory every time you update matlab.
> >
> > > or is it that since my current directory is already the new directory that i created, then i wouldn't have to worry about the old work directory anymore?
> >
> > What you want as a user is to update your matlab lisences with
> > at little fuzz as possible. In principle this should be as
> > easy as
> >
> > 1) Uninstall the present matlab version
> > 2) Install the new matlab version
> >
> > and everything should remain the same way it was the
> > last time you shut down the old version when you start
> > the new version for the first time.
> >
> > In practice, you have to (at least up to and including
> > R2006a) move the work directory into a new place and
> > maybe also the preferences directory. Not a big deal,
> > but lots of users don't know how to do that. And there
> > is no reason they should need to, as matlab should be
> > able to use old setup-files when a noew version is
> > installed. It'a a trivial thing to do for the programmers,
> > but it has to be done.
> >
> > So you as user wants to minimize the hazzle. One way of
> > doing that is to make a folder e.g. under 'My Documents'
> > where you store your matlab-related stuff. Since it is
> > not in the standard matlab hierarchy, matlab doesn't
> > know about this folder, and thus can't mess with it
> > when you uninstall matlab.
> >
> > > and what's the use of the startup.m file left there?
> >
> > The matlab looks for a startup.m file in the work
> > directory every time it starts up. So any instructions
> > inside that file are executed automatically.
> >
> > Since you have stored all your files in a place
> > matlab doesn't know about, you need to let matlab
> > know where to look for files and set the working
> > directory (note the difference between 'work
> > directory' and 'working directory'). The CD command
> > makes matlab set your local directory as the
> > working directory.
> >
> > Rune
>
> thanks for these! everything seems to be working fine now. hope florent will be able to solve the problems also. thanks!

I just had this problem. In the work folder, click the button that says "Compatibility Files" and they should pop up.

I know it's a little too late, hopefully this will help other people.

Re: My files vanished

Vigneron Pierre — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 20:46:08 -0500

Hi all,
I've exactly the same problem (on my 2009 matlab version).
I found the cause : I've got some symbolic folder in my matlab working directory. All the files appeared when I deleted the symbolic folder.

I don't know why, because it's working fine on my 2010 Matlab version.

Best regards,

Pierre