How do I uninstall and reinstall the MathWorks Service Host?
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MathWorks Support Team
on 30 Sep 2022
Edited: MathWorks Support Team
on 1 Aug 2025
How do I uninstall and reinstall the MathWorks Service Host?
Accepted Answer
MathWorks Support Team
on 23 Jul 2025
Edited: MathWorks Support Team
on 1 Aug 2025
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 follow the steps below:
MathWorks Service Host Re-installer (Linux only)
Before running the commands below, change directory to a directory where you have write permissions like ~/Downloads. When running the MathWorks Service Host Re-installer, ensure that you are running it as the user who will be using MATLAB.
wget https://www.mathworks.com/MathWorksServiceHost/glnxa64/ReinstallMathWorksServiceHost
chmod +x ReinstallMathWorksServiceHost
./ReinstallMathWorksServiceHost
Manual Re-installation:
Note: MATLAB itself should not be uninstalled and reinstalled when performing the workflows below.
We first need to close out any MATLAB sessions; please save your work and shutdown MATLAB before proceeding.
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
Note: Ensure using only Command Prompt for this step to avoid errors.
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
To see if your issue has been resolved, try starting MATLAB. This will automatically reinstall MathWorks Service Host.
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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