PP / AE / ME USE C: for Temp. Files NO MATTER WHAT.

[StayClassy]

This is highly frustrating. Why put in so many menus; all these options to use another drive for temporary / scratch files mean absolutely jack, as no matter how many times I triple check everything, irregardless of which of the three software pieces I use, I can rely on Adobe trashing my C: drive and wearing out the SSD, not to mention choking my renders when I'd like to use the super fast scratch SSD I installed on the m.2 slot specifically for this purpose. How do I move the temp files from the C: drive being written there obviously in Resource Monitor, and ensure that the C: drive is absolutely not touched AT ALL for ANY reason other than deleting system32?

[Mylenium]

And what is your "temp" system variable actually set to? It seems you are not understanding this part of the equation. This has nothing to do with the Adobe apps. You need to manage your system properly.

Mylenium

[StayClassy · Accepted solution]

So I finally found WHICH variable to alter.

My "temp" settings within Media Encoder AND AE (Cache Folders, etc) were all set to the correct drives. However, there was ONE cache within After Effects itself that was set to use the C:\Temp folder.

Sorry Mylenium, Adobe needs to design a better menu system where within the program I'm using, I can adjust said variable without having to be smart enough to deduce that the Adobe Media Encoder is using the After Effects engine within Task Manager and thus, the cache setting you really want to change is within After Effects, NOT Media Encoder.

If we know that PP, AE, and AME all handshake with each other, you'd think each program would have the same, universally linked cache settings, while still allowing Project settings to be separate within PP or AE like we currently have, but that you can change the SAME cache settings for ALL programs OR set independent cache's per program (if I decide to get three Barracuda 10k RPM drives to make exclusive for cache, and set one for each program when doing live previews so I can stop wearing out SSD's). That if I originally start a project in PP, find out I need AE, move to AE after setting all of my cache's within AME/PP the way I want, spend years not knowing I'm trashing my C: drive because of the shader within that program being set to something else. Adobe needs to have ALL shader cache's and folder definitions on ONE page where someone can set control across ALL programs because many of us learn this stuff as we go, and we don't need variables strewn across the programs that you need to hunt down and "know" to be another limiting factor for us.

As I said before, my original confusion is because you cannot adjust this specific cache setting within Adobe Media Encoder; you have to load After Effects and change it there. What may seem obvious to you, may be from being taught this information, but a bad menu design is a bad menu design.

[JasonDD210]

Where was this hidden setting? I just discovered 90 GB of trash on my SSD this morning.

[Warren Heaton]

@JasonDD210 

You may be referring to the After Effects Disk Cache.  

You'll find this under Preferences > Media & Disk Cache > Disk Cache.

After Effects defuaults to 10% of the drive it's installed on.  

Part of optmizing After Effects is setting the Disk Cache to a large amount of space on a very fast hard drive.

While it might seem like it's taking up disk space unnecessiarly, it's making things faster while working in After Effects.  We can, of course, disable it, but diminished performace can be expected as a result of doing so.

[Warren Heaton]

@StayClassy 

A unified cache setting would make a good feature request.

[Warren Heaton]

@StayClassy 

I year your concern about "wearing out the SSD".  I've found that while using After Effects, Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, Audition, Media Encoder, and InDesign daily on the same machine for nearly a decade that that main worry is that the machine will start to feel slow compared to newer options.  The boot and scratch SDD's been fine the whole time.