How do I install additional toolboxes into an existing installation of MATLAB?

New toolboxes have just been added to my license. How do I install additional toolboxes into an existing installation of MATLAB?

Answer 1

[MathWorks Support Team]

To install new toolboxes, you can either:

• Rerun the MathWorks Installer to add any additional products not currently included in your installation. You do not need to reinstall MATLAB if you select the same installation folder.
• Use the Add-On Explorer in MATLAB, if your license permits usage of it.

For instructions on installing products using the MathWorks Installer, see the following article:

How do I install MATLAB or other MathWorks Products?

For instructions on installing products using the Add-On Explorer, see the following article:

Get and Install MATLAB Add-Ons and Simulink Add-Ons Using the Add-On Explorer

Additional notes for using the MATLAB Installer:

Before running the MathWorks installer to install an additional toolbox, please keep in mind:

• You may need administrative or root privileges to install additional toolboxes.
• Toolboxes must match the release of MATLAB they are installed into, e.g. you cannot install a toolbox for MATLAB R2022b into MATLAB R2023a.
• If installing the toolboxes offline, the installation files must match the update version of MATLAB, e.g. R2022a Update 2 Installation Files can not be used to install a toolbox to R2022a Update 3 MATLAB.
  • ISOs are update-specific, meaning the ISO for R2022a Update 2 will not install products to an installation of R2022a Update 3.
• MATLAB must be closed in order to run the installer.
• The MathWorks installer will install new toolboxes in the default MATLAB installation folder. If you installed MATLAB somewhere other than the default folder, you will need to select the folder where MATLAB is installed when prompted for the MATLAB installation location.
• During installation, you may be prompted to overwrite any existing products. If prompted, opt to skip installation of any existing products.
• For R2019b and older, the activation process will begin after installation. You need to activate your products in order to use them.
• If the computer is not connected to the internet and you are using a File Installation Key to install the toolboxes, you will need to obtain an updated File Installation Key, License File, and the installation files. See the following article for more information: How can I install MATLAB or other MathWorks products on an offline machine?
• It may be necessary to reset your path file definitions and/or toolbox cache for MATLAB to recognize your newly installed toolboxes.

[Walter Roberson]

Sorry, Victor, No, toolboxes can only be purchased for a licensed version of MATLAB. Sometimes this is "just because that's how we do business", and sometimes it is because the toolbox uses features not present in earlier MATLAB. And part of it is not wanting to support all of the combinations: it gets very time consuming and expensive to run all of the validations against multiple earlier versions of MATLAB.

[Walter Roberson]

ver will tell you whether something is installed (but not whether it is licensed)

Control System Toolbox is generally available for R2021a -- I have it installed.

[Walter Roberson]

Correct, the installer does not delete products

[Walter Roberson]

@su

To install your licensed toolboxes, use the installer that is appropriate for your release.

For support packages, look in the File Exchange.

I am not certain if the File Exchange has all of the support packages; I could imagine, for example, that maybe it does not have some of the less-used pre-trained neural networks.

Answer 2

[Walter Roberson]

In sufficiently new versions of MATLAB, there is an additional installation method for Mathworks toolboxes that you have already licensed. The method also works with a lot of the contributions in the File Exchange.

In the command window, click on "Add-Ons", which is most of the way to the right on the ribbon of widgets. In the menu that pops up from there, click on "Get Add-Ons". This will bring up the Add-On Explorer

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/matlab_env/get-add-ons.html

You can then use the search box to search for the Mathworks toolbox you want. A list of matching entries will be shown to you. Click on the entry you want to be shown details. On that window, there will be a button to trigger installation.

If you are installing a MATLAB Product, then the Add-On Explorer will warn you that it needs to shut down MATLAB. You can take that opportunity to save anything you need saved. You can then continue. MATLAB will shut down, the installer will be launched, and you will confirm installation and proceed.

If you are installing something from the File Exchange, then MATLAB will not need to shut down.

[Walter Roberson]

@Mike AA

Which older versions?

Old enough versions did not have the Add-On Manager, or it did not yet support installing toolboxes. For those older versions you needed to use the standard MATLAB Installer.

Answer 3

[David Verrelli]

The answer by the MathWorks Support Team focusses on Toolboxes that are supplied and licensed by MathWorks. (Which also appeared to be the concern represented in the Original Post.)

There are also many third-party Toolboxes available — often freely — such as on MATLAB Central. There are key differences with these products:

1. Licensing is different.

2. AFAIK, they are not handled by the MATLAB installer or Licence Manager.

3. From statements on MATLAB Central and elsewhere online, it appears that third-party Toolboxes are typically not 'locked' to a specific version of MATLAB. Presumably this issue for the MathWorks's own proprietary Toolboxes is more of a licensing issue. (Of course, occasionally compatibility issues may arise when core MATLAB commands are deprecated or otherwise modified between release versions.)

4. (a) Typically, users are advised to copy the third-party Toolbox to a local folder of the user's choice, and then add that folder to the MATLAB path. See e.g. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3389545/how-to-install-toolbox-for-matlab

(b) A newer feature packages the third-party Toolbox as a *.mltbx file. Example: https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/41594-medical-image-processing-toolbox. These are pseudo-self installing. In a Windows environment, simply double-click this file after saving locally, and a MATLAB Toolbox installation GUI will pop up to handle the process. However, even after successful installation the third-party Toolbox is not listed when issuing the ver command. Rather, the third-party Toolboxes can be inspected (and uninstalled) from the Home menu by clicking the Add-Ons button (in the Resources group) and choosing Manage Custom Toolboxes. Behind the scenes, the third-party Toolbox files are extracted (by default) to %MATLABStartUpFolder%\Toolboxes ( cf. 'userpath' [[1]] ), with a file 'toolboxFolders.txt' created that appears to list the relevant paths for installed third-party Toolboxes.

—DIV

[[1]] https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/matlab_env/matlab-startup-folder.html