MATLAB Permission Issue Across Multiple Users on Windows 10

Hello folks,

I am trying to install MATLAB as the administrator on a common use Windows 10 machine. This machine has multiple user accounts that will each be using MATLAB from their this source installation.

When MATLAB is opened from the main admin account, there is no issue. However, when MATLAB is opened from any of the other user accounts the following errors are given in the command window:

Previously accessible file "C:\Program Files\MATLAB\R2022a\toolbox\local\pathdef.m" is now inaccessible.
Warning: MATLAB did not appear to successfully set the search path. To recover for this session of MATLAB, type "restoredefaultpath;matlabrc". To find out how to avoid this
warning the next time you start MATLAB, type "docsearch problem path" after recovering for this session.
Undefined function 'usejava' for input arguments of type 'char'.
Warning: MATLAB did not appear to successfully set the search path. To recover for this session of MATLAB, type "restoredefaultpath;matlabrc". To find out how to avoid this
warning the next time you start MATLAB, type "docsearch problem path" after recovering for this session.
Warning: Initializing Java preferences failed in matlabrc.
This indicates a potentially serious problem in your MATLAB setup, which should be resolved as soon as possible.  Error detected was:
MATLAB:UndefinedFunction
Unrecognized function or variable 'initdesktoputils'.
com.mathworks.mvm.exec.MvmExecutionException: internal.matlab.desktop.editor.breakpointsForAllFiles
at com.mathworks.mvm.exec.NativeFutureResult.nativeGet(Native Method)
at com.mathworks.mvm.exec.NativeFutureResult.get(NativeFutureResult.java:62)
at com.mathworks.mvm.exec.FutureResult.getInternal(FutureResult.java:413)
at com.mathworks.mvm.exec.FutureFevalResult.getInternal(FutureFevalResult.java:49)
at com.mathworks.mvm.exec.FutureResult.get(FutureResult.java:263)
at com.mathworks.mlservices.MatlabDebugServices$3.run(MatlabDebugServices.java:978)
at com.mathworks.mvm.exec.NativeFutureResult.callRunnable(NativeFutureResult.java:146)
at com.mathworks.mvm.exec.NativeFutureResult.done(NativeFutureResult.java:138)
Caused by: com.mathworks.mvm.exec.MvmRuntimeException: Unrecognized function or variable 'internal.matlab.desktop.editor.breakpointsForAllFiles'.
Unrecognized function or variable 'matlab.internal.docsearchserver.getDocCenterLanguage'.
 
Unrecognized function or variable 'connector.internal.lifecycle.callConnectorStarted'.
 
Unrecognized function or variable 'fullfile'.
 
Error occurred during background graphics initialization: Undefined function 'fullfile' for input arguments of type 'char'.
 
Unrecognized function or variable 'matlab.supportpackagemanagement.internal.getInstalledSupportPackagesInfo'.
 
Unable to resolve the name 'matlab.internal.doc.updateConnectorDocroot'.
 
Unable to resolve the name 'matlab.internal.doc.updateCustomDocContent'.
 
Unable to resolve the name 'matlab.internal.doc.search.configureSearchServer'.
 
Unrecognized function or variable 'matlab.internal.debugger.breakpoints.initBreakpointsStoreInstance'.
 
Unrecognized function or variable 'pwd'.
 
Unrecognized function or variable 'matlab.unittest.internal.ui.toolstrip.getFileInfoForToolstrip'.
 
Unrecognized function or variable 'matlab.internal.codingui.warmupProgrammingAids'.

I attempted to solve this issue by restoring the default pathing and saving it as pathdef.m in the C:\Program Files\MATLAB\R2022a\toolbox\local folder:

restoredefaultpath; matlabrc
savepath C:\Program Files\MATLAB\R2022a\toolbox\local\pathdef.m

This would work for the current user I was logged in as, but when I switched to another user the same issue would occur. I can subvert this issue but forcing MATLAB to be run as Administrator upon startup, but this is not ideal for the security levels required on this machine.

I figure this issue has something to do with user permission levels, but I am unsure which files / directories and what persmission settings I should set up for my configuration. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you.

Answer 1

[Ankur Tyagi]

Hi,

I am assuming that you are using the Individual License on multiple user accounts. You can certainly use the Designated Computer license on a machine to be used by multiple users.

Here are couple of links that will help in understanding more on this question.

Here are the details of Designated Computer License Administration:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/install/license/overview.html

Here is a similar case that has been answered already:

https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/96008-how-can-i-install-multiple-individual-or-designated-computer-licenses-on-a-single-computer

Hope this helps!

Answer 2

[Kelly Chang]

Hello,

The answer helped me figure out that the issue was that the original MATLAB installation was an Indivdual License instead of a Concurrent License. I contacted our adminstration to get the license changed, deactivated the previous license, and re-activated MATLAB with the concurrent license. This solved the issue. Thank you very much!

Answer 3

[Michael]

Not sure if this is helpful to anyone, but we were running into the same problem and found that the "local" folder had correct permissions for users to read/execute, but those permissions were not propagated to the child objects, and the pathdef.m file did not have any user permissions at all. Once we propagated permissions to all child objects, the problem went away.

[Albert Helmut]

Hey, could you explain what "local" folder you mean exactly and how you can change the settings you mentioned? Thanks!

Answer 4

[Bruno]

I'm facing this issue often, with unstable installations on shared development/testing systems.

The license we have is a network license for enterprise.

Answer 5

[Bruno]

Hi, I have experienced this issue an accountable amount of times at this point. So I guess I can contribute on the topic.

When installing Matlab/Simulink on our company computers (targeted to be accessed by multiple users), installing through administrative credentials with elevated rights would cause this issue into the installation.

Regardless the cause of this issue, the exact outcome is that "pathdef.m" will be assigned ADM users and the user logged at installation, preventing other users to perform any operations over the file such as READ.

The resolution will be opening the folder for "C:\Program Files\MATLAB\R20xxy\toolbox\local\", opening "pathdef.m" properties, going into Security and editing Group or user names to include Users for the machine with Full control, Modify, Read & execute, Read, Write permissions.

[Walter Roberson]

If you give full control, then if one user does a savepath() or pathtool(), then the saved changes would affect all users.

[Bruno]

Sure this is one thing to taken in consideration, depending on the maturity and reliability required from the system you might be required to be very restrictive on how and who is able to manage system installation. That is not the case for us at the time and blocking our developers to proceed those changes would be very unproductive (any changes would be required to be evaluated tested and deployed by me personally).

For our use case, enabling our developers to manage those settings still is reasonable.

That said, I would always recommend to address project dependencies into the workspace environment (in that case, maltab/simulink project with source control) than relying into an untracked system setting.