Matlab R2013a wont open files in Editor.

Hi,

I've just installed Matlab R2013a (32bit student edition) on my computer but am having trouble opening files. If I double click on an .m file in the current folder list on the left of the main screen, all I see is a little cursor in the top left corner spinning around but nothing else happens (waited over an hour to check if it was just being slow to respond).

If I click the 'New Script' button, the Editor opens fine and I can create a new file and save it. However if I then try and open that file again, it just hangs as mentioned above.

If I use the Open button, then any files in the 'recent files' list open fine (i.e. any I have just saved). However if I try to select a file not in the recent files list by clicking 'open...', an explorer window opens and I can select the file I want to open. However when I select the file I want, the explorer windows closes and nothing else happens except that I can no longer click the 'open' button and after 5 minutes or so Matlab hangs completely and I have to force quit it.

I have tried completely reinstalling MATLAB, but that didn't help - still have the same issue. I've also tried updating Java, but that made no difference either.

I do have Matlab r2010a installed which works fine.

I am using Windows 7 x64.

[Sean de Wolski]

What happens if you run:

edit yourMATLABFilename.m

[Thomas Carpenter]

That works fine. The editor opens and displays the file correctly.

[Sean de Wolski]

Interesting... And:

open yourMATLABFilename.m

?

[Thomas Carpenter]

that causes Matlab to hang.

[Sean de Wolski]

What is the output from:

which -all open %?

[Thomas Carpenter]

This:

C:\Program Files (x86)\MATLAB\R2013a Student\toolbox\matlab\general\open.m
C:\Program Files (x86)\MATLAB\R2013a Student\toolbox\matlab\graph2d\@scribehandle\open.m                      % scribehandle method
C:\Program Files (x86)\MATLAB\R2013a Student\toolbox\matlab\iofun\@serial\open.m                              % serial method
C:\Program Files (x86)\MATLAB\R2013a Student\toolbox\instrument\instrument\@icdevice\open.m                   % icdevice method
C:\Program Files (x86)\MATLAB\R2013a Student\toolbox\shared\instrument\@instrument\open.m                     % instrument method
C:\Program Files (x86)\MATLAB\R2013a Student\toolbox\sl3d\sl3d\@vrworld\open.m                                % vrworld method
C:\Program Files (x86)\MATLAB\R2013a Student\toolbox\simulink\simulink\upgradeadvisor\@UpgradeAdvisor\open.p  % UpgradeAdvisor method

[Thomas Carpenter]

I have just tried installing it on my desktop (was using laptop before). I have the same issue there.

To test out the problem, I edited the 'open.m' file to add fprintf statements to see where it gets up to before it hangs. It reaches the following line:

[~, openAction] = finfo(fullpath);

But gets no further than that.

I have tried running the following script to test if finfo is indeed the issue:

file = 'E:\<file path obscured>\TwD.m'
finfo(file);

And indeed matlab hangs when calling finfo()

[Thomas Carpenter]

Further testing. I have edited the finfo.m file to see where in that function Matlab reaches using fprintf statements.

It reaches here:

   if any(strcmp(['.' ext], matlab.io.internal.xlsreadSupportedExtensions))  ||  ...
       any(strcmp(ext, ...
                        {'avi', ...                       % retaining avi file checks for backwards compatibility
                         'au' , 'snd', 'wav', ...         % retaining au,snd,wav file checks for backwards compatibility
                         'csv', 'dat', 'dlm', 'tab', ...  % text files
                         'wk1', 'ods', ...                % other worksheet files 
                         'im'}))                          % image files (see getExtension below)

at which point the if statement returns false and it jumps to

      else % for unknown file types :

At which point it crashes. Its strange that finfo sees MATLAB's default file type (.m) as a 'unknown file type'

[Thomas Carpenter]

Result!

I commented out this line (Line 113) from finfo.m:

          [ext, description] = getVideoInfo(filename,ext);

And open now works fine. So does double clicking on files.

So the question no is, why do those lines cause MATLAB to hang?

Answer 1

[Ziemowit Laski]

This is still a a problem with MATLAB 2016a (64-bit version). Any word on a real (MathWorks) fix?

In 2016a, the offending command is on line 186 of finfo.m.

Answer 2

[larryb bliven]

hi Tom, thanks for posting. i had similar problems with R2013a and your suggested fixed worked. i had to comment out lines associated with audio and video files. your approach is on point.

Answer 3

[Chinthaka]

HI, i have installed R2013a and having the same problem.. were you able to find a solution for this? (matlab stops working when i double click a .m file to open).

is it solvable by commenting out the line (Line 113) from finfo.m: ??

          [ext, description] = getVideoInfo(filename,ext)

if so, can you please explain how to get the finfo.m edited? when searched, i found 3 finfo.m files among Matlab installation.

Please help thank you

[Thomas Carpenter]

It was the file:

<matlab installation directory>\toolbox\matlab\general\finfo.m

commenting out line 113 fixed it on both my laptop and desktop.

[Abdi]

Hi Thomas,

But I just tried to edit the file using Notepad++. When I want to save the changes, it refuses and says: "Please check if this file is opened in another program". So the changes cannot be saved. Do you know another way to edit the file? Thank you very much.

[ss]

I am trying to open the editor from matlabR2012a.. But each time I see the error message: error using open (line 163) failed to open matlab editor. What may be the problem?