Matlab crash caused History.xml to be reset.

I'm using Matlab 2015b and it just crashed. When I reopened it, my command history had been reset to the day I installed this version of matlab, about 7 months ago.

My history for that first day is still there, but nothing else. History.xml has been cleared, and I can't find a history.m file anywhere.

I want to know if I can get my history back somehow, and I'd also like to figure out how this happened.

I have the crash dump log, but I'm not sure what information in that file would be useful.

I appreciate any help, thanks.

Answer 1

[Gowtham Uma M Jaganathan]

As I understand, your command history has been reset after your recent MATLAB crash.

Whenever MATLAB exits, the “History.xml” file that is present in the preferences directory will be written with the latest history. When MATLAB is reopened again, it will rename the existing “History.xml” file to be “History.bak” file. Since you faced a crash recently it is possible that the “History.xml” file could be loaded in a corrupted state.

To determine the preferences directory, use the command below:

>> prefdir

You can look at the current “History.xml” and the “History.bak” files in any text editor and see if they contain the expected history. If so, just make sure the determined file is named as “History.xml”.

However, if you have opened and closed your MATLAB application after the crash, there is is a good possibility that both files have been over written since, and the more recent commands may be completely lost.

[Zacbo]

I appreciate the response, and yeah that appears to be the case. As soon as it crashed I reopened Matlab, which is how I found out it had been deleted, and then I closed it hoping it was just a start up error.

[KAE]

I had to wipe my computer, restore files from OneDrive, and reinstall Matlab. I wish the history.xml file was saved and could be accessed after the reinstall. Same thing with my path file.