App designer keeps crashing when using debug mode. My computer? Or app designer bugs?

I’m currently using app designer to build an app that’s about 1000 lines. However, app designer/Matlab constantly crashes. I’m running a 2014 MacBook Pro retina 8Gb ram, 2.6GHz i5. I know it’s old, but it runs other (longer) Matlab scripts just fine. Though I’m sure the way Matlab and app designer store information may differ.

Answer 1

[Reto Christen]

Hi Kris,

can you tell us which exact Matlab Release you are using? I had similar problems with R2017a/b, but R2018b runs quite well for me now (I have also some apps with around 1000 lines).

Anyway, if possible, it is always good to keep your code below 1000 lines since App Designer has some known issues (I have read an article about that from Mathworks but can't find it now). Disabling the "app coding alerts" (Editor > View) can extend this to 1500 lines, but that is not a solution in debug mode.

[Arturo Pino]

I've been having the same issues as described above. I'm using MatLab 2019a, and App Designer just crashes for seemingly no reason. I'm creating a multiwindow app, and I'm trying to make it have a more seamless feel when clicking through different "windows" by loading the other apps in the background on startup and setting .visible = "off" initially. Then, when navigation buttons are clicked to move to a different window, I simply set .visible = "on." So essentially there are many apps running, and these are pretty large. Is matlab appdesigner just not designed to handle this? Loading the other windows individually is just so clunky, I'm trying to address these issues, but it seems like I'm at the limits of what AppDesigner can do.

Is there something simple that I'm missing?

[Reto Christen]

Hi Arturo,

I fear AppDesigner is limited in its capability. I had similar problems with larger Apps.

I tried to load several Apps after each other in order to achieve the same as you did. I came to the same conclusion; AppDesigner is too limited for that.

Answer 2

[Steven Lord]

If MATLAB crashes when you are using App Designer, please send those crash log files to MathWorks for investigation. You can send the log files to MathWorks either by clicking Send in the MathWorks Crash Reporter dialog or by locating the crash log file (likely in your tempdir) and following the instructions at the end of the log file.

As much information as you can provide about what you were doing when MATLAB crashed can help us more quickly determine the cause of the crash (and hopefully be able to provide you with a solution or a workaround.)