MATLAB: How to obtain an offline installer for MATLAB without using the “Download Only” option in the MATLAB installer

MATLAB

I need to install MATLAB on an offline machine however I am not able to use the “Download Only” workflow in the MATLAB installer as my company’s security policies prevent the MATLAB installer from connecting to MathWorks. How can I obtain an offline installer?

Best Answer

The MATLAB ISO archive doubles as an offline installer for MATLAB. Instead of burning the ISO archive, it is possible to extract it using 7zip to create an offline installer. Depending on the release of MATLAB you need to install, you may need to merge the two ISO archives into a single extracted folder before proceeding.
Download the ISO archives
See How do I download a MATLAB ISO archive? for instructions on download the MATLAB ISO archive. You must be a license administrator to download the MATLAB ISO archives. Contact your license administrator for assistance with obtaining the ISO archive if you are not a license administrator.
Creating an offline installer (R2016b and later)
If you are using a Mac, this procedure is not necessary. Instead of downloading the .iso file, download the .dmg file, which contains all files from both DVDs.
As or R2016b the MATLAB installer is split across two ISO archives. As a result you must merge the two ISO archives together to obtain a complete set off offline installation files.
An application which can extract ISO archives directly to folders such as 7zip is required for this procedure. Download and install an application like 7zip before proceeding.
Once you have installed an application like 7zip and downloaded the ISO archives:
  1. Right click on “R20XXx_win64_dvd1.iso” and go to the 7zip context menu.
  2. From the 7zip context menu, select Extract to “R20XXx_win64_dvd1\”
  3. Wait for 7zip to finish extracting the ISO archive. This may take a few minuntes depending on how fast your computer is.
  4. Right click on “R20XXx_win64_dvd2.iso” and select Extract files…
  5. If the checkbox beneath the “Extract to:” field is checked, uncheck it.
  6. In the upper right corner of 7Zip’s extract dialog box, click the button with the three dots
  7. Browse to and select the “R20XXx_win64_dvd1” folder that you created in step 2.
  8. Click “OK” to begin extracting DVD 2. Wait for 7zip to finish extracting the second ISO archive.
To confirm that the folder you created contains products from both DVDs, ensure that the folder contains both the “.dvd1” and “.dvd2” files. If the “.dvd2” file is not present then DVD 2 was not extracted to the root of the folder that DVD 1 was extrated to. (If this is case, the checkbox beneath the “Extract to:” field in step 6 was probably not unchecked.)
Launch “setup.exe” to start the MATLAB installer. Alternatively, you can rename and recompress the “R20XXx_win64_dvd1” folder if you need to move it to an offline machine.
Creating an offline installer (R2016a and earlier)
For R2008b through R2016a, the full MATLAB installer fits on a single ISO archive. To extract this archive to a folder:
  1. Right click on “R20XXx_winXX.iso” and go to the 7zip context menu.
  2. From the 7zip context menu, select Extract to “R20XXx_winXX\”
  3. Wait for 7zip to finish extracting the ISO archive. This may take a few minutes depending on how fast your computer is.
Launch “setup.exe” to start the MATLAB installer. Alternatively, you can rename and recompress the “R20XXx_winXX” folder if you need to move it to an offline machine.
Perform an offline installation
See How can I install MATLAB or other MathWorks products on an offline machine? for detailed instructions on this procedure.
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