Error using save: Error closing file

Asked by Bert on 12 Oct 2011

Latest activity Commented on by Hans Kramer on 18 Sep 2018

Accepted Answer by Jared

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Hey all,

An instance of a class is filled with a lot of data and than saved to my harddisk.

However, during saving, I get the following error: Error using save: Error closing file dummy.mat

I thought it had to do with a lack of memory, but I've monitored the process during saving and I never run out of RAM, and I know that I have plenty of space left on my harddisk.

Does anyone know what causes this error?

Any suggestions are much appreciated!

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Answer by Jared on 18 Oct 2011

Accepted Answer

Hi Bert,

I ran into the same error message a day or two ago with a struct filled with instances of classes that were similarly filled with lots of data. However, I could see in task manager that the memory use was in fact spiking.

The problem went away when I switched to version 7.3 format from version 7 (change file->preferences->general->MAT-Files or I think add flag '-v7.3' to save). This led me to believe that the memory problems might have had something to do with the form of compression done in mat files in version 7.

However, this does not solve another problem associated with save and load which might also cause some issues (it does for me). MATLAB uses lazy copying to conserve memory, i.e. A = B does not make a new copy of B until some part of A is later changed, e.g. perhaps A(end) = 1. Mat files appear to forget about all of these memory-saving relations, increasing both the size of the save files as well as the space required in memory once the save file is loaded.

Hope this helps! Jared

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Scott Tuttle on 11 Jul 2017

Many Thanks Jared! Using '-v7.3' on the save command fixed my case. I now made 7.3 the default in my preferences.

Rosalyn Putland on 17 Jan 2018

Thanks this fix worked perfectly!

Hans Kramer on 18 Sep 2018

Thanks man. Worked for me as well.

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Answer by Jonathan Pelham on 17 Feb 2015

I have had a similar error message. This is a very old q&a. Does anyone know if the answer is still valid?

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Ingo Schalk-Schupp on 21 Jul 2015

For me, this also did the trick. I was saving using the -v6 switch, and I got the error reproducibly. After I removed it, the error did not occur any longer.

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Answer by Zaki Mohzani on 7 Sep 2016

Ran into this error today. That error message should be updated to reflect the new 'v7.3' option.

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Henrique Costa on 5 May 2017

Now it is: save('myFile.mat','-v7.3','-nocompression');

Henrique Costa on 5 May 2017

or, if you want compression : save('myFile.mat','-v7.3');

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