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Pritu2
Pritu2
Participant
August 21, 2026
Answered

Scratch disk full error despite having free SSD storage space

  • August 21, 2026
  • 2 replies
  • 39 views

Photoshop displays a "Scratch Disks are full" prompt during startup or rendering even though the primary drive has ample free storage.

Correct answer Warren Heaton

​@Pritu2 

 

Check for APFS local snapshots — that's almost always the culprit when Finder shows free space but apps still choke on "disk full." Snapshots pin old blocks even after you delete files.

Terminal:

tmutil listlocalsnapshots /

If you see a list, that's your problem. Thin them with:

tmutil thinlocalsnapshots / 50000000000 4

(bumps up to ~50GB purgeable, adjust the number)

Or in Disk Utility: select the volume, hold Option, File > Show APFS Snapshots — you can delete them one by one there too.

2 replies

Warren Heaton
Community Expert
Warren HeatonCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
August 21, 2026

​@Pritu2 

 

Check for APFS local snapshots — that's almost always the culprit when Finder shows free space but apps still choke on "disk full." Snapshots pin old blocks even after you delete files.

Terminal:

tmutil listlocalsnapshots /

If you see a list, that's your problem. Thin them with:

tmutil thinlocalsnapshots / 50000000000 4

(bumps up to ~50GB purgeable, adjust the number)

Or in Disk Utility: select the volume, hold Option, File > Show APFS Snapshots — you can delete them one by one there too.

kglad
Community Expert
kgladCommunity Expert
Community Expert
August 21, 2026

post this in the ps forum, https://community.adobe.com/p/photoshop

 

p.s. change your title to avoid a duplicate message problem.

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