App designer fails to open (R2016b)

This has occurred to me with two separate installations of MATLAB R2016b (on OSX El Capitan and OSX Sierra). Simply typing "appdesigner" or attempting to open an app previously created with App Designer causes an empty window titled "MATLABWindow" to appear, with no editor in sight. Which kind of is a problem since these apps can not be edited with the standard editor. Why, and how can it be resolved?

[Walter Roberson]

Data point: it works on my El Capitan R2016b system

[Walter Roberson]

Data point: it works on my Sierra R2016b system.

I suggest experimenting by exiting MATLAB, renaming your prefdir, and re-entering.

[Sean de Wolski]

I've experienced this too. Please contact tech support.

[Mr.Smiley]

I also have this issue on two separate installations: R2016b on Windows 10, and R2016b on Windows 7 Enterprise virtual machine. I had not had any issues until a day or two ago when neither installation would work. The only thing they have in common is they both access local clones of the same Git remote repository.

[Aditya Kaki]

I still have this problem. if anyone has found solution could you please share it here.

Answer 1

[Prasad Mendu]

As Walter mentioned in the comments, you can try generating the preferences again by executing the command given below at MATLAB Command Window, or by renaming the existing preference directory.

>>prefdir

One possible reason for this issue could be custom networking configuration of your computer. To workaround that, add the following line to the /private/etc/hosts file:

127.0.0.1 localhost

After making this change, execute the command:

dscacheutil -flushcache;sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder

After doing this, restart (or start) MATLAB and try using App Designer again.

The following site has instructions for updating the hosts file:

http://osxdaily.com/2012/08/07/edit-hosts-file-mac-os-x/.

[cwj]

Thank you for the answer. Unfortunately, typing "prefdir" or regenerating the preferences directory by removing the old one did not solve the issue. The line "127.0.0.1 localhost" was also already present in the hosts file and running the commands "dscacheutil -flushcache;sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder" did not help.