Why does MATLAB fail to load my preferred language on macOS Sierra?

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When running MATLAB on macOS Sierra, I have noticed that MATLAB does not seem to load my language, region, or text encoding preferences correctly. On previous releases of macOS, the MATLAB user interface appeared in my preferred language, but on macOS Sierra it appears in English. Additionally, MATLAB fails to load or save non-ASCII characters. How can I resolve this issue?

Accepted Answer

MathWorks Support Team
MathWorks Support Team on 3 Sep 2021
Edited: MathWorks Support Team on 25 Aug 2021
Apple released macOS Sierra on September 20, 2016 and changed the way macOS reports Language & Region preferences to MATLAB. If you have set your Language & Region (hereafter referred to together as "locale") to a locale not listed below, you may be impacted by this issue. To check your locale, open the "Language & Region" preference pane in System Preferences. Your current Language is at the top of the list on the left, and your Region is listed in the drop down menu on the right.
The following locales are not impacted by this issue:
  • English, United States
  • English, Australia
  • English, Canada
  • English, United Kingdom
  • Deutsch, Austria
  • Deutsch, Switzerland
  • Français, Canada
  • Français, Switzerland
  • Español, Spain
  • Nederlands, Belgium
  • Português, Brazil
  • Português, Portugal
If you have set your Mac to one of these locales, no patch is necessary. MATLAB will use the correct character encoding for your locale regardless of which release of MATLAB you are using.
If you have set your Mac to a locale outside of these twelve, you either need to update to a newer release of MATLAB or apply a patch for MATLAB to resume its expected behavior in your locale.
If you are running MATLAB R2016b and you installed MATLAB before October 6, 2016, a patch can be downloaded here. If you installed MATLAB after October 6, 2016, no action is required.
If you are running MATLAB R2014a through R2016a a patch for these releases of MATLAB can be downloaded here.
If you are running MATLAB R2013b or earlier a patch for these releases is not available. Please update to MATLAB R2014a or later to use MATLAB on macOS Sierra.
If you are not sure if your Mac is affected by this issue, the script attached to this article will tell you. To run the script:
  1. Download the attached file, sierraLocaleDetector.p
  2. Move the file to your MATLAB working directory
  3. In MATLAB, run the command "sierraLocaleDetector"
The script will tell if your Mac is impacted and if you need to apply the patch.
  8 Comments
Walter Roberson
Walter Roberson on 21 Sep 2016
"As a systems administrator, application developers driving my upgrade path is nonsense. "
You might perhaps have been given a very very different mandate than I was. As systems administrator my mandate was to keep the hardware and software working smoothly in support of applications and development.
The organizations I worked for did not buy computer hardware because computer hardware is cool: they bought computer hardware to run applications, and to develop software. The operating system version was considered a detail left to me provided that the OS updates did not break anything. I got actively criticized for upgrading OS versions unless the upgrade was completely transparent -- and even then, I would get criticized for rebooting the server in the middle of the night because then people would (Oh, horrors!) have to log back on!
In every single place I have worked over the decades, an operating system was never an end in itself: it was always only there to make it possible to run the needed software.
Systems Administration is not a theoretical task: it is the art of making things work. Including anticipating and measuring and alleviating risks. An operating system upgrade is always a risk, and should never be put into place without testing. You can be virtually guaranteed that the OS vendor did not do their testing on your exact configuration, so you need to test everything of importance to you before deploying.
The places I have worked that could afford more than one computer always maintained the Development / Production distinction (though we were more likely to call it "Test-Bed" than "Development".) One system or network that could afford to be messed up while new things were implemented, and different systems that were required to work (except while being updated with tested configurations). Upgrading the production systems with day-of-release software versions without testing first was Not Acceptable to the people I worked with.

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More Answers (26)

James Huffman
James Huffman on 21 Sep 2016
I think that this is completely unacceptable. Did MathWorks update their systems today and just find out? As was mentioned, beta versions of the developer preview have been available for some time and the final GM seed has even been out for almost a week! Some users (myself included) had already upgraded by the time that MathWorks sent out an email alerting users to this issue. How long has MathWorks known that this was an issue, and was any other effort made to alert users before they upgraded? Thankfully, I do not use MATLAB on a daily basis, but if I did I can assure you that an OS upgrade unknowingly bricking my main work tool would leave me very upset.
  7 Comments
Walter Roberson
Walter Roberson on 2 May 2019
MacOS 10.14: September 24, 2017 (released to developers June 25, 2018 = 3 months earlier.)
The article at http://osxdaily.com/2018/06/09/macos-mojave-release-date-fall/ discusses that Apple only committed to "fall", not to a specific release date or week.
Notice that the cycle is getting shorter, but that Apple does not have a fixed cycle.

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Sandor Toth
Sandor Toth on 20 Sep 2016
Is MATLAB R2016b compatible with MacOS 10.12 using language English and region Switzerland?
  1 Comment
MathWorks Support Team
MathWorks Support Team on 21 Sep 2016
Edited: MathWorks Support Team on 25 Aug 2021
Language English with region Switzerland is impacted by this issue. If you have non-ASCII characters in your MATLAB text files (.m, .mdl, .csv, etc.) they will not save correctly if opened on macOS Sierra. Wikipedia has an ASCII reference if you want to check to see if you are using non-ASCII characters.
If you are not sure if you have non-ASCII characters in your text files, we recommend waiting for a workaround which will be posted on the bug report.

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Michael Tesar
Michael Tesar on 21 Sep 2016
I am pretty sick and tired of every year incompatibility, Java errors and slow performance of latest Apple HW and SW. This was the last time, I got into point, where I uninstalled all MathWorks software from our laboratory and switched to Python, which is free, compatible and capable and I get better performance than MATLAB, which is bit shame, when you pay a lot of money for almost 20 copies of expensive SW, which doesn't work every year for 6 month.
  1 Comment
Stephen23
Stephen23 on 21 Sep 2016
Edited: Stephen23 on 22 Apr 2020
Of course Python itself does not really do anything similar to MATLAB, so you would need to also download and install numpy and scipy and matplotlib and whatever other packages are required for your task... and quelle surprise!: these different modules also have incompatibilities and require particular releases to work together. Then you find a bug in one of them that is fixed in a recent release and so you update one package... and then it stops working together. Brilliant. And there is no technical support, but plenty of forums filled with the computer geeks who are delighted that they get to spend hours/days/weeks playing around trying to get it to work properly on their favorite flavor of linux.
Pity the poor fools who just want to get their work done, though.

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Glenn
Glenn on 21 Sep 2016
In stead of announcing for which languages and regions settings it is incompatible, are you able to announce which languages and/or regions settings result in incompatibility?
This way everyone can check for themselves if they are affected, in stead of having to wait until their settings may (or may not) become part of the list of compatible settings.
  1 Comment
MathWorks Support Team
MathWorks Support Team on 21 Sep 2016
There are tens of thousands of Language and Region combinations and at this time we believe the 11 listed above are not impacted. If your Language and Region is not listed then non-ASCII characters in your MATLAB text files will not be saved correctly.

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Tom
Tom on 7 Oct 2016
Edited: Tom on 7 Oct 2016
I patched Matlab (R2015b) as a result I am unable to open Matlab. It says ""MATLAB_R2015b" überprüfen". Which means: Checking Matlab... I use the english version of Matlab in Germany. What can I do?
The reason I patched Matlab was, that the trackpad-response in Matlab was super sensible since I updated to Sierra... (this resulted in strong difficulties of scrolling in Matlab. The scrolling is just way to fast)
I rebooted my MacBook but still Matlab won´t open...
Thanks for your advice...
EDIT: After I pressed "open anyway" and several tries Matlab works again :-) But still the scrolling-issue accures!!!! Scrolling is much to sensitive and fast since Sierra.... !
  2 Comments
Tom
Tom on 7 Oct 2016
Hey after I pressed "open anyway" and it somehow worked. I have no idea why it suddenly allowed to open after allowing it about 10 times...

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Marie
Marie on 21 Sep 2016
Is MATLAB R2016b compatible with MacOS 10.12 using language English/ American and region France? and language french ?
  1 Comment
MathWorks Support Team
MathWorks Support Team on 21 Sep 2016
Edited: MathWorks Support Team on 25 Aug 2021
Language English with region France is impacted by this issue. If you have non-ASCII characters in your MATLAB text files (.m, .mdl, .csv, etc.) they will not save correctly if opened on macOS Sierra. Wikipedia has an ASCII reference if you want to check to see if you are using non-ASCII characters.
If you are not sure if you have non-ASCII characters in your text files, we recommend waiting for a workaround which will be posted on the bug report.

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J Weijs
J Weijs on 21 Sep 2016
Edited: J Weijs on 21 Sep 2016
Hello, I am willing to test French, France on a second mac I don't use for production anyway (R2016b). What tests should I run in order to check whether Matlab is (in)compatible?
  8 Comments

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N/A
N/A on 21 Sep 2016
Edited: John Kelly on 21 Apr 2020
Does the above mean that systems running 'English, United Kingdom' are completely OK
Is MATLAB online affected?
  3 Comments
Kyle Perry
Kyle Perry on 28 Dec 2016
Regardless of the release you are running, if you are in one of the 12 locales listed in the answer you will not be impacted by this issue. If you are not sure what locale you are in, please download and run the script attached to this article.

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Stephen Obrochta
Stephen Obrochta on 22 Sep 2016
MATLAB has real issues with Non-ASCII characters, so I'm not at all surprised this happened.
As of 2014b en_us version on mac, I cannot switch to a path with Japanese characters. If this hasn't been fixed in a subsequent release, now would be a good time address it.
As is, I'm forced to either use the ja_jp version or avoid any Japanese folder name, neither of which is desirable.

Snoopy
Snoopy on 22 Sep 2016
Is language English, region Netherlands affected by the issue? Thanks.
  1 Comment
MathWorks Support Team
MathWorks Support Team on 23 Sep 2016
Edited: MathWorks Support Team on 25 Aug 2021
Language English with region Netherlands is impacted by this issue. However, if you are using MATLAB R2016a or R2016b, a patch is now available on the bug report.

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Mher oubarian
Mher oubarian on 23 Sep 2016
Was the problem fixed after installing the patch provided ? Is it now safe to intall os sierra?
  1 Comment
MathWorks Support Team
MathWorks Support Team on 23 Sep 2016
Edited: MathWorks Support Team on 25 Aug 2021
As of September 23rd, 2016, a patch is available for R2016a and R2016b on the bug report. If you are using R2016a or R2016b, it is safe to apply the patch and update to macOS Sierra.

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PITAKTAI SUBPOOLPECH
PITAKTAI SUBPOOLPECH on 23 Sep 2016
Is language English, region Thailand affected by the issue? and when you fix it can i know about and update its?,Thank
  1 Comment
MathWorks Support Team
MathWorks Support Team on 23 Sep 2016
Edited: MathWorks Support Team on 25 Aug 2021
Language English with region Thailand is impacted by this issue. However, if you are using MATLAB R2016a or R2016b, a patch is now available on the bug report.

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Luis González de Gor Cánovas del Castillo
Is MatLab 2015b compatible with macOS 10.12 in Spain?
  1 Comment
MathWorks Support Team
MathWorks Support Team on 23 Sep 2016
Edited: MathWorks Support Team on 23 Sep 2016
Language Spanish with region Spain is not impacted. All releases of MATLAB will work as intended in this locale.

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Hanzhe Huang
Hanzhe Huang on 25 Sep 2016
Completed the patching for 2016a China but the software still doesn't work.
  2 Comments
adam bush
adam bush on 27 Oct 2016
Hi, I suffer from the same problem with you. I also use Chinese, a new version of 2016b (9.1.0.441655) didn't work for me, nor the patch. Can you please tell me how you solved this problem? Thanks

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Reza Hosseinzadeh
Reza Hosseinzadeh on 26 Sep 2016
language English ,region Finland , Matlab 2016a , is it OK to upgrade to macos sierra?

TITAN JUPITER
TITAN JUPITER on 28 Sep 2016
Is MATLAB R2015b compatible with MacOS 10.12 using language English and region India?
  1 Comment
MathWorks Support Team
MathWorks Support Team on 28 Sep 2016
Edited: MathWorks Support Team on 25 Aug 2021
Language English with region India is impacted by this issue. A patch is available for R2015b on the bug report.

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Jochen Hammes
Jochen Hammes on 29 Sep 2016
Hi, I'm trying to install the patch for Matlab 2016b but I don't know where to find the "Matlab Runtime" that the patch is asking for. Selecting the Matlab-App int he Applications-Folder does not work.
  1 Comment
MathWorks Support Team
MathWorks Support Team on 29 Sep 2016
Edited: MathWorks Support Team on 25 Aug 2021
If the patch is asking you to locate the MATLAB Runtime but you want to patch MATLAB, then you downloaded the patch for the MATLAB Runtime, not MATLAB. For MATLAB, you want the patch on this bug report.

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Giacomo Alo'
Giacomo Alo' on 3 Oct 2016
Can i install MATLAB R2015b on MacOS Sierra 10.12? I have an academic licence. Thanks for answer.
  1 Comment
Walter Roberson
Walter Roberson on 4 Oct 2016
Yes, you can. If you are using a language / region other than one of the eleven listed, then you will need to install the patch.

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Shuang Luo
Shuang Luo on 8 Oct 2016
I used MATLAB 2016a, my language is Chinese, region is Finland. I installed the patch: R2016a_patch_1465823_2016-09-21.dmg.zip and ran it. It said patching completed. But when I open my MATLAB 2016a, the language is English not Chinese.(Before my upgraded my MAC to Sierra, the language of my MATLAB is Chinese.) I dont care about the language but I do care about whether the bug is fixed already? I don't want my code goes wrong. Can u tell me how to fix it? Thx very much.
  2 Comments
adam bush
adam bush on 27 Oct 2016
Hi, I suffer from the same problem with you. My language is also Chinese, a new version of 2016b (9.1.0.441655) didn't work for me, nor the patch. Can you please tell me how you solved this problem? Thanks

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Aiven Timptner
Aiven Timptner on 16 Oct 2016
Edited: Aiven Timptner on 20 Oct 2016
After a little misunderstanding and having a nicely conversation with MathWorks Installation Support my MatLab works just as fine. Patch worked for me and was easy to install.
  1 Comment
MathWorks Support Team
MathWorks Support Team on 18 Oct 2016
We are sorry to hear that the patch did not restore your localization settings. A MathWorks Support Representative will follow up with you to determine why this happened.

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Pavel Samokrutov
Pavel Samokrutov on 20 Oct 2016
Is MatLab 2016b compatible with macOS 10.12 in Russia?
  1 Comment
MathWorks Support Team
MathWorks Support Team on 24 Oct 2016
Edited: MathWorks Support Team on 25 Aug 2021
All Russian locales are impacted. If your Mac's language is set to Russian, you should apply the patch.

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William
William on 21 Oct 2016
Do I understand correctly that if one is running Matlab with the English language and is not using any non-ASCII characters, then there will be no problem running earlier versions of Matlab on OS Sierra regardless of the locale setting?
  1 Comment
MathWorks Support Team
MathWorks Support Team on 24 Oct 2016
Language English with region United States, Canada, United Kingdom, or Australia are not impacted. If your Mac's locale is set to one of these four options, then you are not impacted by this bug.
Similarly, if you are exclusively using ASCII characters, then you will not be impacted by this bug regardless of your region settings.
Lastly, MathWorks has only qualified MATLAB R2016b on macOS Sierra, so this is the only release that MathWorks supports on macOS Sierra. However, we believe that releases R2014b through R2016a will run with few or no issues once the patch is applied. However, if you attempt to install or run R2014a and earlier, you will begin to encounter other compatibility issues on macOS Sierra.

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Simone Orcioni
Simone Orcioni on 24 Oct 2016
Edited: MathWorks Support Team on 24 Oct 2016
Dear MathWorks Support Team,
I install Sierra only after knowing that a patch for the locale issue existed.
I patched my previously installed 2016b version of Matlab, but it didn't work.
I installed a new version of 2016b (9.1.0.441655) but it didn't work.
I tried to patch also this version of Matlab, but it didn't work.
The welcome message, when entering in Matlab is always:
ans = US-ASCII
But Matlab editor continues to destroy all accented characters in my comments, so I'm forced to use octave-gui to edit and debugging my code.
When can I go back to using Matlab?
regards
S.
  2 Comments
adam bush
adam bush on 27 Oct 2016
Edited: adam bush on 27 Oct 2016
Hi, I suffer from the same problem with you, a new version of 2016b (9.1.0.441655) didn't work for me, nor the patch. Can you please tell me how you solved this problem? Thanks

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Mr M.
Mr M. on 31 Oct 2016
I would like to run MATLAB 2013b on Sierra, but window with title "Error Starting Desktop" appears. Lots of error messages are in there, most of them contains keyword: java.
For example: java.lang.NullPointerExeption
com.mathworks.widgets.WindowsWidgetFactory‹‹SearchAndClearButton.anyText(WindowsWidgetFactory.java:187)
  1 Comment
MathWorks Support Team
MathWorks Support Team on 1 Nov 2016
Edited: MathWorks Support Team on 1 Feb 2021
MathWorks does not recommend running R2013b on macOS Sierra as a patch for the issue described in this article is not available for R2013b. If you are using MATLAB outside of the eleven Language & Region combinations listed in the above answer, you will be limited to the ASCII character encoding when using R2013b on macOS Sierra.
You may be able to get R2013b to run on macOS Sierra if you apply this patch however there are other problems associated with running MATLAB R2013b on macOS Sierra which could manifest. For additional assistance please contact MathWorks support, but to reiterate, MATLAB R2013b is not supported on macOS Sierra and you may not be able to get it to run at all. The best way to run MATLAB on macOS Sierra is to update to R2016b.

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Oscar Stiven
Oscar Stiven on 1 Nov 2016
Dear MathWorks Support Team,
I install Mac OsX Sierra I installed a new version of 2016b (9.1.0.441655) but it didn't work. I tried to patch also this version of Matlab, but it didn't work. Is MatLab 2016b compatible with macOS 10.12 in Ecuador?
  1 Comment
MathWorks Support Team
MathWorks Support Team on 1 Nov 2016
We are sorry to hear that the patch did not restore your localization settings. A MathWorks Support Representative will follow up with you to determine why this happened.

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boleto faturablog
boleto faturablog on 27 Jun 2017
Great tips, also had the same problem.

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