If I upgrade from MatLab 2010 to 2011, will my 2010 toolboxes work with MatLab 2011?
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Short answer: No.
Long answer: Nnnnnooooooooo.
Why not? You can't do it, because then the versions would not be consistent. Just as you cannot use a toolbox from 2009 in a current or different release, you cannot use a newer toolbox with an old release of MATLAB.
There are good reasons why this cannot be done. Remember that MATLAB is an evolving language, although it evolves very slowly, and they attempt as strongly as possible to make everything compatible with what worked in the past. Occasionally however, utilities in MATLAB disappear. As users, we get long warning times, that some specific tool will disappear in the future.
But a toolbox is written to employ the existing capabilities of MATLAB. However, a toolbox author could not be asked to also provide versions that would work with any older MATLAB release too. That would effectively force any toolbox to only work for the oldest possible MATLAB release. Or, it would force a toolbox author to write different versions of the toolbox for every possible older release. It would also force the author to exhaustively test those toolboxes against every old release. I shudder to consider the additional numbers of employees that would be needed, and the additional man-years of work they might need to make toolboxes compatible with older releases.
In terms of the work necessary, insisting on the ability to use some current toolbox in an old release is realistically impossible. But it also damages the general business model the MathWorks itself must employ to remain in business. In order for their business to continue, for them to be able to pay the employees they have and to continue as a business into the future, they need to have a revenue stream. Part of that revenue stream will come from people updating their old releases. Otherwise, once everyone has MATLAB, then nobody else needs to buy it. And that would force them to charge far more for you to buy the product the first time. They would certainly be forced to charge more to buy any individual toolbox.
There are people out there who use surprisingly old releases of MATLAB. I am sure some could argue that a toolbox should be accessible to say the last 3 releases, or n releases, picking whatever value for n as you wish. Of course, if you personally live with an old release, then n would be a large number. But as soon as they would be forced to provide that capability for any older release at all, it would also effectively forces them to significantly increase the level of testing done and the number of people they would need to employ to write the codes. It would seriously increase the time required to create any new toolbox.
You cannot mix the toolboxes of two different releases of MATLAB. The release of the toolbox must match with the release of MATLAB. This is required to ensure the full compatibility of each product with every other product within a release.
For example, if you have MATLAB R2018a installed but some of your toolboxes are only eligible for R2017b then you will not be able to utilize the toolboxes on R2018a. Should you be interested in utilizing your toolboxes for the latest release, please look into renewing maintenance for the other toolboxes as well.
R2010b and Older
Sometimes a toolbox upgrade becomes available between MATLAB releases (this is known as a "plus" release, as in R2009a+). In such cases, there will be two toolbox versions available for the same toolbox release, and both will be compatible with the MATLAB release.
Some MATLAB versions have Service Pack releases (R2010bSP1 for example). You cannot mix products of Service Pack releases with non-SP releases (or an earlier Service Pack release). For example, you cannot mix R2010b MATLAB with R2010bSP1 toolboxes. If you accidentally install these versions together, it is recommended that you uninstall and reinstall MATLAB.
NOTE: This is true for both the Professional Version and the Student Version
If you are interested in upgrading any of your toolboxes or purchasing new toolboxes, please contact our Sales Department. Please include your license number in your correspondence.
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