MATLAB: Do I receive License Manager Error -5

MATLAB

Why do I get the following error message when starting MATLAB:

ERROR: License checkout failed. No such FEATURE exists. License Manager Error -5

Best Answer

There are multiple reasons why you might be receiving this error:

The product is not licensed
Formatting error within the license file
Server and Client Mismatch

The product is not licensed

This message usually indicates that you are trying to use a product for which you are not licensed. To verify if the product is licensed, you may inspect the license file (license.lic) located within your MATLAB installation to see if you are licensed to use this product.

To determine where your license file is located, please refer to the following article:

Where are the license files for MATLAB located?

NOTE: If you only have a network.lic file, instead of a license.lic file, you are using a network license. In this case contact your license administrator to check the license.dat file on the License Manager server machine.

Formatting error within the license file

If you are licensed for this product, this error may be the result of formatting problems in your license file. In order to avoid this, ensure that the following strings all begin on a left justified line: #, SERVER, DAEMON, or INCREMENT. Sometimes an INCREMENT line can get wrapped on the end of the preceding INCREMENT line causing it to be omitted.

For Individual or Designated Computer licenses, you can also simply re-activate MATLAB on this system. That will automatically update the license file on your system.

Server and Client Mismatch

If the License Manager Error -5 appears in an UNSUPPORTED line in a License Manager Log file and the hash code quoted in log line does not match the hash from the INCREMENT line from the current license file on the server, the client machine either:

Has an old license file on the MATLAB license path containing INCREMENT lines from a previous license. The old license file(s) should be removed
Has INCREMENT lines in the network.lic file. The affected user should remove all INCREMENT lines from the network.lic
Has an old MATLAB process running on their machine that was running while the license file on the server was updated. The user should kill the process to resolve the error

Related Solutions

MATLAB: Do I receive License Manager Error -25

This error occurs when you try to start a version of MATLAB that is newer than the version of the license.dat file on the license server.To resolve this issue, update the license.dat file on the server to the latest release that you are licensed for.For instructions, please see the following article:

How do I update the license file on the license server?https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/102901

The license.dat file on the server machine is located in:

$MATLABROOT/etc ($MATLAB\flexlm for releases prior to R2010b on Windows)
(where $MATLABROOT is the MATLAB installation directory)

NOTE: Once you have made changes to your license file, be sure to restart the network license manager for these changes to take effect. For more information on how to restart the license manager, see the Related Solution linked below.

MATLAB: How to change the activation of a MATLAB installation from Individual or Designated Computer to Concurrent

Before MATLAB clients are able to check out a license key from the license server with the Network Concurrent license, make sure that the License Manager is installed. Please see here for instructions:

How do I install or update the Network License Manager?

https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/105860

Once the License Manager is installed, copy the license.dat from the server (by default located in $MATLABROOT/etc, e.g. C:\Program Files\MATLAB\R2019b\etc) to a folder on the clients.

Deactivate MATLAB:

As a next step, remove the old license activation from the MATLAB installations. For instructions, see the following article:

How do I deactivate MATLAB?

https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/100663

Re-activate MATLAB:

After the deactivation is complete, launch MATLAB. It will ask for a new activation. In the Activation programme, select ‘Activate manually without Internet’. Proceed with the steps. When prompted for the license file, point to the license.dat file. MATLAB should now use the Network Concurrent license.