1 Correct answer
Photoshop uses a so-called scratch disk to process complex operations. When it runs out of memory, it will use the scratch disk that you select in Preferences > Scratch Disk. Larger files and complex operations will need a lot of scratch disk space. Is that the problem you have? Free up some space on the disk selected as the scratch disk or add a new, larger disk, preferably an SSD M.2 NVME.
Explore related tutorials & articles
10
Replies
Is the problem mainly with your C: drive? If you have additional drives, there are all sorts of ways to reduce what you have on the boot drive.
Are you using Windows 10 or 11?
I'm actually struggling to find a decent link for you, so I'll give you the basics, and you can Google the details.
Turn off hybernate. It uses a bunch of space, and has always been a PITA IME often causing crashes when waking up. Always thje first thing I do with a new system.
Open File Explorer. Right click Documents and choose Properies.\
Click on the Location tab. You'll see an option to move to another drive.
Do the same with Desktop, Downloads, Pictures (if you have a lot of them).
Install WinDirStat. It's an incredibly useful app that shows you what and where things are on your drives.
Well this is embarrassing. It turns out that I have NOT disabled hybernate on my current system, but it does let us see its impact on drive space. The way it works is you click on a big chunk of colour in the lower half, and it shows you the file path in the top half. Hybernate is using 25.5Gb on my system.
You say that Photoshop is using a bunch of space. You need to check the root directory of the drive used for Photoshop scratch space. With Photoshop closed, there should be no Photoshop temp files. If there are, you can delete them.
I hope that helped. If you say you were asking about RAM and not drive space, I might scream.
Bojan and Trevor,
I am using Photoshop 2024 and I see that I still have alot of Photoshop 2023 files on my computer. Can I safely delete those files?
By @pslane1
WOAH!!!
Hold your horses. You can safely delete Photoshop Temp files if you still them after you close Photoshop. They look like this: (the blue is because I have it selected)
Note: the above file has today's date because I have only just opened Photoshop. If I close Photoshop the file should be removed from the drive.
So to be 100% sure, this is a Photoshop Temp file followed by a string of numbers, and it is in the root directory (not in a folder) of the drive you have set for Photoshop Scratch space.
If you have messed up and deleted the wrong files, you might need to reinstall Photoshop.
You need to answer a few questions if you want meaningful help.
Like How many drives does your computer have?
If more than one, are the addition drives internal or external?
Show us a screen shot of File Explorer with This PC selected.
AdChoices
