[ERROR] FOUserAgent - Image not found. Encountered using publish r2018a

I recently changed from r2016b to r2018a and now the publish function is not displaying plots. When I attempt to publish the following code to pdf I receive the subsequent error and the pdf publishes without the plot.

Code:

% test_publish.m

figure;
plot(1:10);

<<untitled.tif>>

Error

[ERROR] FOUserAgent - Image not found. URI: C:/Users/David Clemens-Sewall/AppData/Local/Temp/test_publish_01.bmp. (See position -1:-1)
[ERROR] FOUserAgent - Image not found. URI: C:/Users/David Clemens-Sewall/AppData/Local/Temp/test_publish_01.bmp. (No context info available)

I'm operating on Windows 10 and unfortunately I had already deleted r2016b so I cannot simply return to using that. By saving the plot and then loading it explicitly I can add it to the pdf. So it seems that publish is capable of loading and displaying the image it's just that matlab is trying to write the plots to a location it cannot access (the directory does exist, but when I go there I do not find the plots). I've looked at changing my temporary directory but unfortunately clear all followed by setenv doesn't seem to change that either (it keeps stubbornly returning to 'C:/Users/David Clemens-Sewall/AppData/Local/Temp/'). So I'm not sure where to go next. Thank you!

[Walter Roberson]

That directory, does it exist? Do you have authorization to write there?

[David Clemens-Sewall]

Yes to both. The directory does exist (I can access it via command prompt, strangely not via windows explorer). And I can both create files in it and other applications (e.g. adobe acrobat) can write to it and access data.

[Sugs]

I'm having this same issue except with 2017b. It used to work fine, then one day it just stopped working. I'm not sure if this helps for finding the directory via windows explorer, but I had to show hidden folders to find it. Still don't know how to fix this problem though.

[Mark Walter]

bump?

[Ryan Neel]

bump bump

[Walter Roberson]

You should probably contact Mathworks Support for this. The regular volunteers do not appear to use Publish regularly.

[Image Analyst]

Did you change your original question and code? This code

% test_publish.m

figure;
plot(1:10);

<<untitled.tif>>

that you posted would not cause any problem. It will run (I tried it), though if you call it publish.m, it will override the build-in publish() function, which is never a good idea.

[VIVEK RUHELA]

@Image Analyst :

I am facing the same problem in Matlab-2018b. With code given in question, I am not getting any image in pdf file. Rest plot is working fine but while publishing, I am getting the same error as reported in the question. Any other suggestions....

Thanks

Answer 1

[Ben Drebing]

It looks like this error happens if there is a space in a folder name in the path to your current working folder. So, if you move your code somewhere else so that none of the folders in the path have a space in their name, you should be able to publish.

[Sugs]

Thank you very much for posting the solution to this. This may be a dumb question, but why does the space in the name cause this issue?

[Walter Roberson]

Historically, some of the Mathworks tools and some of the third-party tools have failed to put quotation marks around names when building command lines to be executed by the shell. For example,

include_dir = fullfile(matlabroot, 'include');
cmd = ['copyfile ' include_dir '\mex.h .]
system(cmd)

Might turn into

copyfile c:\Programs And Executables\MATLAB\R2018a\include\mex.h .

which will fail because copyfile will interpret that as having arguments

c:\Programs
And
Executables\MATLAB\R2018a\include\mex.h
.

More proper code would have been

include_dir = fullfile(matlabroot, 'include');
cmd = sprintf('copyfile "%s\\mex.h" .', include_dir);
system(cmd)

which would turn into

copyfile "c:\Programs And Executables\MATLAB\R2018a\include\mex.h" .

which turns into copyfile arguments

c:\Programs And Executables\MATLAB\R2018a\include\mex.h
.

Simulink used to be quite bad at this. The third-party android tools used to be weak on this as well.

When there is a bug like this, if you just happen to be using a directory and file that contains no spaces, then everything works.

[Bradley Stiritz]

Hi Ben,

I'm working in R2019b Update 4, and I'm experiencing this same issue. I'm not seeing any embedded spaces on my end-- Maybe I'm not understanding your suggested workarounds--?

Ben>It looks like this error happens if there is a space in a folder name in the path to your current working folder.

>> pwd
ans ='W:\Matlab-work\FATE'

Ben>So, if you move your code somewhere else so that none of the folders in the path have a space in their name, you should be able to publish.

My MLX file is in the following folder--

W:\Matlab-work\FATE\Studies\Ad-Hoc

Here's one of the error messages I got, when I tried to export MLX to PDF--

[ERROR] FOUserAgent - Image not found. URI: file:///C:/Users/brads/AppData/Local/Temp/Exporter9081147262246435610/0B6E7D67.png. (See position 1:6301)

But are you saying that we have to check the entire Matlab path, to ensure there are no spaces in any of the folders? I'm sorry, but this sounds a little onerous, doesn't it..?

Any further clarification appreciated please,

Thanks,

Brad

[Walter Roberson]

Brad Stiritz, I do not think you are encountering the same problem.

[ava yektaeian]

Thanks, really helpful

Answer 2

[Marc Youcef]

I am still having this issue on R2020a which is a long way from when that problem was first spot...

Answer 3

[Cesar Martinez Delgado]

I have the same problem when I try to publish pdfs or docs. I have tried to change the entire folder to a new one that does not have space in the name. Also, I tried adding to the path the folder that is show in the error. And kind of made the entire track of the function publish to catch the mistake because it. But, it always drops the same error heading to the same path, using the OP sample: C:/Users/ David Clemens-Sewall/AppData/Local/Temp/ Any further assistance on this? Changing the user name would in theroy help, but i do not know if it is gonna mess other applications, which I would avoid to happen. thank you

Answer 4

[Ryan Whitney]

I continue to run into this issue. Sometimes it happens and if I change something in the code (minor, unrelated) or restart Matlab and it will output.

Other times, like RIGHT NOW (very frustrated) there appears to be nothing I can do to export this to PDF. I've had this issue on multiple versions :(.

I'd like to see MathWorks work on fixing this as they are clearly putting work into Livescripts and having the ability to run an analysis and export to PDF is super useful (still some formatting controls to work out, but I'm patient on that).

I'm running 2019b, on MacOS 10.14.6.

[Ryan Whitney]

I've looked in the folder on my laptop where the images are supposed to be and it does not exist. So that explains the error - but I see all the plots in the viewer, but they are not where Matlab wants to look on the file system.

Answer 5

[Robert Herring]

The easiest way to solve this is by changing your user environment variables so that the TMP and TEMP variable have a filepath with no spaces in them. I made a folder on my C drive called 'Temp', then set the environment variables TEMP and TMP for my user to 'C:\Temp'. The following Micrsoft tutorial will help.

Answer 6

[Antonio Javier Barragán Piña]

Adding as first line of code this works for me (it is a comple clean of MATLAB environment):

clc, clear all, close all

[Riccardo Cambini]

I had the same problem and this line solved it.

I used this code as the first line in the .mlx file, I ran it, and exported safely in .pdf.

I noticed also that you can cancel the line before exporting in .pdf. In other words, it seems that this line is needed just when you run the .mlx file, while you can leave it or not when exporting in .pdf.

[Roberto Barumerli]

Worked also for me!

[Jeroen Vermond]

For me as well, thanks!

[Bernardino Leonado Jaramillo Miranda]

sirve, gracias

Answer 7

[Sanqiang Zhong]

I run into the same problem. I solve it by saving the .xml file first before converting it to PDF.