Manage Files and Folders

This table shows how to create, open, move, and rename files and folders on local and network drives from the toolstrip and the Files panel. To open the Files panel, click the Files icon in the sidebar. If you have MATLAB Connector installed on your system, you also can access files and folders in your MATLAB^® Drive™ from MATLAB.

Action	Tools Workflow	Function Alternative
Create a new folder	In the Files panel, right-click in white space, and then select New > Folder. Alternatively, on the Home tab, select New > Folder. MATLAB creates and selects a folder named New Folder in the current folder.	Use the mkdir function. For example, create a subfolder named newdir in a parent folder named parentFolder: mkdir('parentFolder','newdir');
Move a file or folder	In the Files panel click and drag the item. You cannot move a folder while it is on the search path.	Use the movefile function. For example, move the file named myfile.m in the current folder to the folder, d:/work: movefile('myfile.m','d:/work');
Rename a file or folder	In the Files panel, right-click the item and select Rename. Alternatively, press F2. On macOS press Enter instead. File names must start with a letter, and can contain letters, digits, or underscores.	Use the movefile function. For example, in the current folder, rename myfile.m to oldfile.m: movefile('myfile.m','oldfile.m');
Open a file in MATLAB	On the Home tab, in the File section, click Open , and then select a file to open. You also can double-click the file in the Files panel or select the file and press Enter. On macOS, press Command+Down Arrow instead. To open a file in the Editor as a text file, even if the file type is associated with another application or tool, in the File section, click Open > Open as Text.	Use the open function. The file opens in MATLAB or in an external application, depending on the file extension.
Open a file in another program	In the Files panel, right-click the file and select Open Outside MATLAB. The file opens in the application or tool that the operating system associates with the file type.
Reopen a recently opened file	On the Home tab, in the File section, click Open , and select a file from the Recent Files section. To reopen a recently opened project, select a project from the Recent Projects list.	none
Reopen last closed file	On the Home tab, in the File section, click Open > Reopen Last Closed File. Alternatively, press Ctrl+Shift+T.	none
Preview file contents without opening the file	In the Files panel, right-click the file and select Preview. You also can click the Preview button to the right of the file or folder name.	none
Preview contents of Markdown file	When you open a Markdown file in MATLAB, the Editor shows a preview of the file to the right of the Markdown file. As you make edits to the file, the Editor updates the preview. To close the preview, go to the View tab and in the Preview section, click the Markdown button off. In the preview, Markdown and MATLAB code appears with syntax highlighting. The Editor does not render images from external web pages in the preview.	none
Delete a file or folder	In the Files panel, select the file or folder and press Delete. By default, MATLAB deletes or recycles files and folders according to your operating system settings. To permanently remove the selection when the system setting is set to recycle, press Shift+Delete. On Linux® systems, you can request that MATLAB move deleted files to a temporary folder. On the Home tab, in the Environment section, click Settings. Select MATLAB > General and modify the Deleting files setting.	To delete a file, use the delete function. For example, delete a file named myfile.m in the current folder: delete('myfile.m'); By default, files are permanently removed. To move deleted files to a temporary folder instead, use the recycle function or set the Deleting files setting. To delete a folder, use the rmdir function. You cannot recover folders deleted using rmdir.
View MATLAB Drive recent activity	In the Files panel, right-click any MATLAB Drive file or folder and select MATLAB Drive > View recent activity.	none
Open MATLAB Drive online	In the Files panel, right-click any MATLAB Drive file or folder and select MATLAB Drive > Go to MATLAB Drive Online.	none

Manage Files and Folders in MATLAB Online

MATLAB Online™ provides access to MATLAB from a standard web browser. In MATLAB Online, you only have access to the files and folders in your MATLAB Drive, and some file actions are not supported.

For more information about how to access files in MATLAB Online, see Access Files in MATLAB Online.