Cannot type or edit in MATLAB, only right click and menus.

Strange occurrence today, I started MATLAB and I cannot get any input except right click menus. Running 2012a on MAC 10.6. Worked fine last night. Have restarted the computer several times. When I click on the M editor or command window nothing happens, as if it is locked up. Every now and then it seems to work for an instant and whatever inputs I've tried show up on screen, then it freezes. If I double-click a word I can highlight it, but there's no cursor function.

A few times I've gotten the following error:

java.awt.IllegalComponentStateException: component must be showing on the screen to determine its location
  at java.awt.Component.getLocationOnScreen_NoTreeLock(Component.java:1995)
  at java.awt.Component.getLocationOnScreen(Component.java:1969)
  at apple.awt.CAccessibility$22.call(CAccessibility.java:370)
  at apple.awt.CAccessibility$22.call(CAccessibility.java:368)
  at apple.awt.CToolkit$CallableWrapper.run(CToolkit.java:1125)
  at java.awt.event.InvocationEvent.dispatch(InvocationEvent.java:199)
  at apple.awt.CToolkit$CPeerEvent.dispatch(CToolkit.java:1215)
  at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEventImpl(EventQueue.java:715)
  at java.awt.EventQueue.access$400(EventQueue.java:82)
  at java.awt.EventQueue$2.run(EventQueue.java:676)
  at java.awt.EventQueue$2.run(EventQueue.java:674)
  at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
  at java.security.AccessControlContext$1.doIntersectionPrivilege(AccessControlContext.java:86)
  at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEvent(EventQueue.java:685)
  at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpOneEventForFilters(EventDispatchThread.java:296)
  at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForFilter(EventDispatchThread.java:211)
  at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForHierarchy(EventDispatchThread.java:201)
  at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:196)
  at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:188)
  at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.run(EventDispatchThread.java:122)
>>

Any ideas? Should I reinstall?

Thanks Mark

[Marshall]

I have been experiencing the same problem, OSX 10.8.4 on a 2012 MacBook Air. MATLAB was working fine for me this morning. Over my lunch break I let both OSX and MS Office update (App store and Office Update, respectively). I rebooted after updates were complete, and now MATLAB is frozen on launch.

I have not run either update on my desktop (IMac, OSX 10.8.4) and MATLAB still works fine.

Thanks for any help.

[Brigitte]

I am also experiencing this problem (matlab 2012a, macosX 10.8.4). When I write something in the command window, I don't see the text I'm writing, but as soon as I click in the menu bar (next to the apple icon) and pass over the scrolling menu, the text I wrote appears in the matlab command window and is executed... maybe related to java or X11 ??? After verification, it started today after macos update (Java for OS X 2013-004) containing packages com.apple.pkg.JavaEssentials, com.apple.pkg.JavaForMacOSX107, com.apple.pkg.JavaSecurity, com.apple.pkg.JavaMDNS

[Thomas Moran]

Same problem, 2012a on os x 10.7.5. MATLAB itself works fine from terminal, but the desktop screens are all unresponsive.

[Luke Boorman]

Has this been fixed for windows 7 yet. Me and two other colleagues are experiencing similar problems, you cannot type in the editor window unless you close and reopen the mfile? Windows 7 64, Matlab 2013a. I dont want to revert to some hackable old Java version? Thanks Luke

[Sean de Wolski]

Luke, the behavior in this question is Mac specific. Please contact Technical Support.

[Mika Mäki]

For the cases where the problem affects only the App Designer and such, please see this thread:

https://se.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/417183-keyboard-input-is-not-working-in-matlab-guis-on-ubuntu-18-04

Answer 1

[Mark]

I found a workaround: Close all programs

    Go to Applications / Utilities / Java Preferences

    The Java Prefs app will open

    In the 'General' Tab, change the order of Java SE, so that the two with the older versions are on top.  The versions are in the RH column on my system.  For example, my toplisted version was 1.6.0_51..., which is the latest version updated yesterday.  There were also two entries for 1.6.0_24...  Drag these so they are on top (64-bit first)

   Close the app

   Start MATLAB.  Now I can type and everything is good.

Answer 2

[Knut Sindre Åbjørsbråten]

Let me bump this - I still get this error on Matlab 2018a. It happens consistently when using Screen Sharing, and makes this a bit rough.

Answer 3

[Sean de Wolski]

This currently is being investigated by our development team. This thread also applies to the same issue:

http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/79530-java-10-6-update-16-issue-on-osx-10-6