Apple Silicon M2: Matlab Starts Up Very Slowly Randomly

Hi,

On my native Apple Silicon version of Matlab 2023b, some startups are very slow (almost 1 minute) while other startups are very fast (less than 10 seconds). It happens seemingly randomly. When the slow startup happens, there is no message before the prompt in the console. Whereas with a fast startup, there is this message printed before the prompt:

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This is perhaps a hint about what is happening in the background. If you guys have a solution it would be welcome because when it starts slowly, everything is sluggish afterwards, especially Simulink.

Best,

Jacques

[Venkat Siddarth Reddy]

Hi Jacques,

What version of MacOS are you using?

[Jacques GANGLOFF]

Hi!

14.3.1 Sonoma

MacBook Air

16 GB RAM

Apple M2 CPU

1 To SSD

Answer 1

[Vandit]

Hello Jacques,

Please find below a few suggestions that might help resolve the issue:

1. If you are not using source control features within MATLAB, you can improve performance by disabling Git™ integration. This can be done by going to the Home tab, selecting Preferences from the Environment section, and in the Preferences dialog box, navigating to MATLAB > General > Source Control pane to select None.
2. . If that did not help to resolve the issue, please check and see if the Current Folder window is open in MATLAB. This should show up along the right side of the MATLAB window and should show the files contained in the current folder you are working from. If the Current Folder window is open, try closing it. You can do this by either right-clicking the top of that window and selecting Close, or by selecting the down arrow on its right side and selecting the Close option at the bottom. Then restart MATLAB and see if you still encounter these slow speeds and lag.
3. You could also try to disable auto-refresh in the Current Folder browser settings from the preferences window. To do this, select the Home tab from the toolstrip at the top of the MATLAB window, and select the Preferences button in the Environment section towards the right. With the preferences window open, select the drop-down button next to MATLAB and go the Current Folder selection. Under the Refresh section, there should be a "Auto-refresh view from file system" option with a check box. If the box is currently checked, click on it to uncheck it. Then restart MATLAB and see if this helps with the issue any.
4. Additionally, please ensure that there are no network directories on your path. Make sure that all the folders and directories that you are working with on your path are local to you machine and are not network directories.

If you have tried above mentioned steps and still encounter slow startup times, the following MATLAB Answers threads might provide further assistance:

Not responding on startup, macOS Mojave - MATLAB Answers - MATLAB Central (mathworks.com)

Matlab is very slow on macOS Big Sure - MATLAB Answers - MATLAB Central (mathworks.com)

Hope this helps.