Can't open Photoshop 2021 - scratch disks full, where are temp files?

[kg01915]

HELP! I recently installed the latest version of Photoshop (2021) and can no longer even open the application. When I try to, I receive a pop-up error message (attached) that scratch disks are full. I have read many, many articles on this forum and elsewhere about this issue, but can't seem to resolve it. I am aware of the "Purge" setting, but can't even get into PS to do that. I am also aware of the need to delete any extra temporary files, but have not had any success in locating them. I found this online and tried it, to no avail:

"It's in C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp. To access that, you can type %LocalAppData%\Temp in the Start > Run field. Look for "Photoshop Temp" file list."

What am I missing here? Can you help me locate the temp files or provide any other advice. I have urgent project needs for a client that require PS, so any help would be appreciated. Please explain any directions very simply, as I'm not technically savvy on the back end. Thanks.

[jane-e]

Hi

You need to free up more space on your HD or set up a second HD to be scratch space. See here:

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/scratch-disks-preferences.html

Microsoft has this support page on cleaning up files:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/free-up-drive-space-in-windows-10-85529ccb-c365-490d-b54...

How much free space do you have?

~ Jane

[Tanja2014]

>>How much free space do you have?

5.x GB as you can see in the screenshot.

[kg01915]

Jane—Thanks for your response. I'm familiar with that Adobe article. I should have specified that I'm on a Mac (OS Mojave). And I believe I have plenty of drive space left. There is 5 GB on the scratch disk. I don't have the means to set up an additional disk at this point, which is why I'd like to figure out how to delete any temporary .pst files. 

I should add that I have also uninstalled and re-installed this version of PS, which did not resolve the issue.

[jane-e]

Hi @Tanja2014 

A lot of us don't open attached files. You can embed them by clicking the Insert Photos icon in a chat window.

Here is Apple Support for freeing up space.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206996

I also keep shortcuts in my sidebar for the Attachments and Mail Downloads folders and try to keep up with deleting those on a semi-regular basis.

~ Jane

[davescm]

The scratch file is in the root drive of the disk(s) you specify for scratch use. The scratch file is deleted when Photoshop closes. You do need to make sure there is plenty of free space on the disk you specify, 5GB is not enough.  Here, Photoshop uses more than 5GB scratch space just to open and can easily run up to 100GB when processing large files.

With only 5GB left you are going to hit more problems than Photoshop. Soon your operating system will freeze as it too uses free temporary space to run.

Dave

[JJMack]

How much free space is available for use on your scratch disk. IMO to be able to use photoshop and batch Actions you should have 80+GB of free space.  Just starting Photoshop on my PC. Photoshop uses 7GB and a documents has yet to be opened.

[kg01915]

davescm and JJMack—Thank you for this feedback about space. I do have a major issue with space on this computer. It's an older Mac (early 2015), running and older OS (Mojave) and, as a designer, I have a ton of files. I'll be upgrading soon, but need to work with what I have for now. Will freeing up general space on the HD increase scratch disk space as well?

[davescm]

Yes it's all the same space

Dave

[D Fosse]

Scratch disk = free disk space.

Move everything you can to an external drive. You really cannot keep your working files and assets on the system drive, they should be elsewhere. That's also a safeguard if anything happens on system level, you always know your files are unaffected and safe. With backups of course.

As Dave says, 5 GB is nothing. I have single files bigger than that. That's for all intents and purposes a drive filled to the rim, and there will soon be system-wide problems if you don't do something about it ASAP.

[kg01915]

I do have an external drive and am working now to free space. I also have an iCloud drive, but it seems like that still takes up a good bit of space on my hard drive. Am I misunderstanding how iCloud works? What have you found most helpful for storing files (external drive, iCloud, Dropbox, etc.)?

[D Fosse]

Not a problem for me, I have a desktop machine with 4 internal disks totalling 20 terabytes in the box 🙂 (plus externals and backups).

You can get 10TB external disks now, for a very reasonable price.

[jane-e]

Am I misunderstanding how iCloud works?

iCloud backs up your information. Details here:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207428

Jane

[Conrad_C]

I have to agree with the others...5GB is not enough free space on a Mac or Windows startup volume. Even if you are not running Photoshop, 5GB is almost no space left.

On my Macs, I try to keep over 100GB free on the startup volume so that macOS and all applications have room for the many large cache, swap, and temporary files that they may need to create during a session. If I ever discover I only have 5GB free on my startup volume, I consider that an emergency that must be dealt with (by moving files to another volume to free up space), or macOS might not let me get the day’s work done.

Another consideration: Macs come with a very fast and expensive solid state drive (SSD) inside, but running an SSD almost full is a really good way to slow it down and not get the speed you paid so much for.

[kg01915]

Thank you, everyone, for your help. I'm a bit embarrassed that I hadn't realized the connection to this storage issue. I've cleared off a bunch of stuff and Photoshop seems to be working fine now. But it's definitely time for an upgrade!