MATLAB: Do I get the error “Unable to create the preferences folder – Preferences folder location must be a valid full path” when trying to start MATLAB

MATLAB

When trying to start MATLAB, why do I get "Error Starting MATLAB – Unable to create preferences folder in "%PATH%". Preferences folder location must be a valid full path."?

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This error occurs when the preferences directory is not in a valid path. This could also occur if the MATLAB_PREF environment variable is not an absolute path.

To resolve this, make sure your path is absolute. This means no spaces, special characters, or quotations.

Examples that won't work:

C:/Program Files/MATLABPref

"C:/MATLABPref"

C:/MãTLABPref

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MATLAB: Do I get “You cannot add method folders (ones that start with ‘@’) or private folders to the MATLAB search path” error

It is possible that you are trying to add a folder named "private" or one that starts with "@" character.

These are reserved for class definition in MATLAB and therefore cannot be added to the path:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/matlab_oop/organizing-classes-in-folders.html

As a workaround, you can rename your folder

MATLAB: Do I receive the error ‘cannot start engine’ when I run MuPAD in MATLAB R2012b or R2013a

This could be due to an issue with your PATH environment variable.

Issue the following command to view the PATH variable

getenv('PATH')

The 'cannot start engine' error may occur if the output contains previous installations of MATLAB, extinct directories, or a UNC path name. Use "setenv" to set the PATH variable without these elements and see if MuPAD works. If that does not resolve the issue, try editing the PATH variable with the following command:

setenv('PATH', [matlabroot '\bin\' computer('arch') ';' getenv('PATH')])

Note that "setenv" only resets the path in the current session of MATLAB and not the external system variable PATH stored by the operating system. Therefore, the next time you start MATLAB, the original PATH variable will be restored and you will recieve the same error. To effectively make the change to PATH variable permanent, you can add the appropriate "setenv" command to your startup.m file.

The issue caused by a non-existing UNC path in the PATH environment variable has been fixed in MATLAB R2013a.

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MATLAB: Do I get “You cannot add method folders (ones that start with ‘@’) or private folders to the MATLAB search path” error

MATLAB: Do I receive the error ‘cannot start engine’ when I run MuPAD in MATLAB R2012b or R2013a

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