Adobe Software and Memory Problems

[Abderian IT]

Hello everyone!

I know that there are quite a few topics on this problem but I haven't found any satisfactory solution. Indeed, whenever I use Premiere Pro or Photoshop (the latter, mainly), I see my available space disk decreasing to... zero, whence instability issues and other obvious problems in managing brushes, files, and so on. 

I've just found the solution using the %temp% to remove unwanted files, but the problem keeps occurring and neither Photoshop nor Premiere Pro properly delete some files they use... and I'm not really working on super large files, my PSD ones being generally inferior to 500 MB.

The crux of the matter is that I even removed the disk with Windows installed on it from the scratch disk list, but it keeps using it and pumping every byte I may have left. The problem also occurs on my laptop, and even after I've rebooted the computer, the files are still somewhere around and are never deleted. Even in the "Purge" menu section, after I closed Photoshop, all the options are unavailable and yet hidden files are still around.

Finally, I also ensured that PS and all the software were installed on another hard disk along with the Create Suite App and the Cloud folder. 

Have I missed something? Thanks in advance for all the help you may provide!

[Test Screen Name]

How much free space are we talking about, here? You should never get below 50-100GB on your system drive, it's asking for crashing, performance reduced (permanently), and more.

You say "hidden" files are still around? How do you know, and where are they?

[Abderian IT]

Hi!

Thanks for your quick answer.

I have precisely more 50 GB of free space on the Windows disk and more than 8 TB on the others. About the hidden files... well, technically, they are hidden, so it's hard to spot! But it seems that they were in the %temp% folder, linked with the  opened Windows account. And I know that because when I check the disk memory, after a few project files, it drops to zero, or so. And even without it, I receive error messages (like when I want to export a movie, or a PSD into a picture format).

[Test Screen Name]

Your free space is pretty marginal, especially if exporting videos. Also, if you use Premiere Pro, there are cache locations, but that's rather off topic here. If your other drives are internal, you could consider moving %TEMP% to one of the other internal drives, which is discussed here - https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/change-location-of-temp-files-folder-to-anothe...

[D Fosse]

Have I missed something?

Yes. This isn't Photoshop - it's a lot of data and you need to have space for it.

Raster image editing moves massive amounts of data around, much more than any RAM you may have installed. All that temporary working data has to go somewhere, and so it's written to disk. This is Photoshop's scratch disk.

The scratch disk is Photoshop's main memory, with RAM acting as a cache. Data go back and forth. The scratch file contains all history states for all open documents, plus overhead (which in the case of smart objects can be very large) The scratch file will be orders of magnitude bigger than the nominal starting file sizes.

Bottom line is, you need at least 500GB free space for the scratch disk, maybe more. It depends on what you do.

Moving Photoshop to a different drive accomplishes nothing except other potential problems. I'd recommend putting it back on C.

[Mylenium]

Without exact system info we can't tell you much. the simple truth is that your disks don't work correctly and this is not a general PS or Premiere problem. 50 GB is plenty to work with and if you're working with regular file there's no need to habve more, contrary to what Mr. Fosse said. So no, that's not an issue you can fix from within the Adobe apps. Start by monitoring your task manager and resource monitor and verify your disk setup via the disk management system control. Also check your device manager and install/ update all necessary drivers for your storage devices.

Mylenium

[Abderian IT]

Thanks for your replies, but I don't agree with my computer being flawed somewhere as no other software encounters any problem of this kind. I moved the TEMP/TMP folders as suggested (thanks a lot for this tip !), and I hope it may help, but the problem is that PS doesn't seem to take into account the scratch disks and use, for all its history and rasterizing needs, the Windows drive. 

I don't know what you need exactly but I have no hardware limitation as such, but for C:\. Indeed, my RAM is 16GB, I have 3 disks with a total of about 8TB of free space and a graphic card that is fair too, so the problem does occur from the mismanagement of the temporary files, according to me.

That may be a naive question, but isn't there a smart management of the temp files from PS or Premiere Pro, like when you reach mybe 90% of the disk memory, it switches to another one? I'd like to run a test to see whether they are effectively using the other scratch disks. Does such a thing exist?

Thanks again for your support!

[Mylenium]

Again, your issues have nothing to do with PS per se. Your disks somehow "forget" that PS is accessing them and that can mean anything from botched storage drivers to misconfigured power management sending them to sleep at the wrong time. You really have to give us all the info before anyone can even guess. Under normal conditions PS always cleans up after itself, so what you see is definitely not normal or intended.

Mylenium

[D Fosse]

Yes, there is "smart management" and PS will use the drives listed in the listed order (and you can change the order):

When Photoshop closes, all scratch files are deleted. While open, the allocated disk space will be reused as needed.