Why can I not see the Menu Bar (File, Edit, View, etc.) when I open my GUIDE-built app in R2025a or R2025b?

After upgrading from MATLAB R2023a to MATLAB R2025a/R2025b, the classic 'Menu Bar' (File, Edit, View, Insert, Tools, Help) that normally appears at the top of the figure window in my GUIDE-built app is missing. This issue occurs every time I open the app in the newer releases.

Previously, in MATLAB R2023a, these menus were available and allowed me to interact with plots, export data, and access other figure tools.

I need a way to restore these menus or replicate the same functionality in the newer versions of MATLAB. Why is this happening?

Answer 1

[MathWorks Support Team]

This happens because in MATLAB R2025a and MATLAB R2025b, MATLAB figures created without specifying 'MenuBar' default to 'none', hiding the classic menubar and toolbar. GUIDE apps that assume these menus exist by default (like it did previously) will fail when adding submenus. For more details you can compare the R2025b docs to R2023a.

A workaround for this without changing the app code is that after opening the FIG file, run the following commands in the Command Window:

>>h = gcf;

>>set(h,'MenuBar','figure','ToolBar','figure');

To make this permanent, save a patched FIG:

>>savefig(h,'<your_fig_name>_patched.fig';