This issue generally indicates that the license file is served from the Network License Manager and that there is a problem with the license.dat file on the machine running the Network License Manager. The cause of this error may be due to one of the following:
- Missing corrupt, or incorrect characters in license.dat file
- Network license being used to activate MATLAB
- System time, date, or locale issue
Missing, corrupt, or incorrect characters in license.dat file
If your license file has been manually modified (excluding lines starting with SERVER, DAEMON, or #), then your license file has likely been corrupted. Please obtain a new copy of your license file from the License Center.
This error may also be the result of having line breaks in your license file. In order to avoid this, ensure that the following strings all begin on a left justified line: #, SERVER, DAEMON, or INCREMENT. Sometimes an INCREMENT line can get wrapped on the end of the preceding INCREMENT line, causing it to be omitted.
Network license being used to activate MATLAB
It is also possible for this error to occur if a network license is attempting to be used in place of an Individual or Designated Computer license. If you are trying to activate MATLAB for a network license, you need either a license.dat or network.lic from the person who maintains the Network License Manager. If a Network License Manager has not already been setup, then it needs to be in order to use the license. Read more information from the link below about the differences between license files types:
What are the differences between the license.lic, license.dat, network.lic, and license_info.xml license files?
System time, date, or locale issue
This error can sometimes occur if the system time and date are not set properly. Check to make sure that the date and time are correctly set on the machine before proceeding.
If you are located in Turkey, or the default language of your computer is Turkish, please refer to the article below:
Why do I see license manager error -8 when launching MATLAB on Linux when my locale is set to Turkey?
