When manually activating R2012a-R2013b on MacOS X 10.8-10.10, why do I receive an error -9?

I have manually activated a release of MATLAB between R2012a and R2013b on Mac OS X 10.8-10.10 to my Mac's 'en0' Ethernet address. When I try to open MATLAB, however, I receive the error "license manager error -9."

Answer 1

[MathWorks Support Team]

With MATLAB releases R2012a through R2013b on Mac OS X 10.8 to at least 10.10 (Mountain Lion, Mavericks, and Yosemite), your MathWorks Host ID points to en1, not en0. On Mac OS X 10.7 and earlier, the Host ID is still en0.

This issue only affects Mac models which have multiple network interfaces. Macs without a built in Ethernet port are not effected. This includes the MacBook Air and the retina MacBook Pro.

If you are using a Mac with an Ethernet port running OS X 10.8 through 10.10, you can resolve this issue by reactivating with your en1 MAC address.

Additionally, in some rare cases, MATLAB may switch between these two network devices on each reboot. If you aren't able to open MATLAB, but can resolve the issue after a reboot, this issue may be happening to you.

If this issue is reproducible, please contact MathWorks Support with both MAC addresses. Support can apply a workaround to effected Macs.

Lastly, this issue was resolved with MATLAB R2014a. If you are able, updating to MATLAB R2014a or newer will resolve the issue.