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Jan 24, 2026 5:57 AM UTC
Question

Soumitra Dutta :How do I fix the 'Scratch Disks are Full' error?"

Hi,

 

My name is Soumitra Dutta an entrepreneur, Author & photographer born in independent India. I’m hitting the 'Scratch Disks are Full' error and I'm stuck. I've tried restarting, but the error persists. Here are my specs and what I've tried so far:

App & Version: Photoshop 26.1

OS: Windows 11 (or macOS 15.2)

Hardware: 16GB RAM, 512GB Internal SSD.

Current Disk Space: My C: drive shows 45GB free, but Photoshop still won't let me [open a file / use a filter].

What I've tried: I went to Preferences > Scratch Disks, and my main drive is checked. I also tried clearing my 'Purge All' cache, but it didn't help.

4 replies

Trevor.Dennis
Community Expert
Community Expert
Jan 27, 2026 8:43 AM UTC

45GB is getting close to pushing your luck for Mac OS to run smoothly, and that's before you start running any apps.  Can you free up some space by moving data files onto an external drive?

 

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justlearn
Community Expert
Community Expert
Jan 26, 2026 6:31 PM UTC

@47541662 Interesting enough, on my HD on my MacBook Pro, I have 10x that space. The more free space the better.


876840i1533FC36AB747951.png

 

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m
Jan 27, 2026 5:26 AM UTC

Thanks @creative explorer 

Soumitra Dutta

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jane-e
Community Expert
Community Expert
Jan 26, 2026 6:19 PM UTC
quoteMy C: drive shows 45GB free,
By @47541662

 

45 gb is not nearly enough free space. You need to free up more. See this help file for "how-to":

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/desktop/troubleshoot/performance-stability-issues/troubleshoot-scratch-disk-full-errors-in-photoshop.html

 

 

Jane

 

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