How do I uninstall and reinstall the MathWorks Service Host?

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Accepted Answer

MathWorks Support Team
MathWorks Support Team on 19 Mar 2025 at 0:00
Edited: MathWorks Support Team on 19 Mar 2025 at 21:03
The MathWorks Service Host is a critical required part of the MathWorks software installed on your machine. If you encounter startup issues, uninstalling and reinstalling the MathWorks Service Host may resolve these issues. In order to reinstall the MathWorks Service Host please download and run the MathWorks Service Host re-installer found below: 
MathWorks Service Host Re-installer 
When running the MathWorks Service Host Re-installer, ensure that you are running it as the user who will be using MATLAB. Additionally, you may need to provide the executable execute permissions on Unix systems by running: 
chmod +x ReinstallMathWorksServiceHost
Download Links:
For macOS, please refer to the manual reinstallation instructions. 
Manual Re-installation: 
If the re-installer does not work, or you are attempting it on an offline machine, you will need to proceed with a manual re-installation. Please see the steps below: 
Note: MATLAB itself should not be uninstalled and reinstalled when performing the workflows below.

1. Shut Down MATLAB 

We first need to close out any MATLAB sessions; please save your work and shutdown MATLAB before proceeding.

 

2. Uninstall the MathWorks Service Host

Run the following operating system commands to end the MathWorksServiceHost process and delete its installation directories.

 

Windows 
Open Command Prompt by searching for it from the Windows Start menu. Then, run each of these commands one at a time: 
Taskkill /IM MathWorksServiceHost.exe /F rd /s /q %localappdata%\MathWorks\ServiceHost %localappdata%\MathWorks\MATLABConnector

 

macOS
Open the Terminal app by searching for it in Spotlight Search. Spotlight Search is the magnifying glass in the top-right corner of your macOS screen. Then, run each of these commands one at a time: 
killall MathWorksServiceHost  rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/MathWorks/ServiceHost ~/Library/Application\ Support/MathWorks/MATLABConnector

 

Linux 
Open a terminal window. The way to open a terminal window depends on your Linux distribution. Then, run each of these commands one at a time:
killall MATLAB MathWorksServiceHost  rm -rf ~/.MathWorks/ServiceHost ~/.MATLABConnector 

 

3. Restart MATLAB

To see if your issue has been resolved, try starting MATLAB.
If you are still running into errors after trying the above, collect the MathWorks Service Host logs and Contact Support
To collect the MathWorks Service Host logs, refer to the following article.

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