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StevieDan
Participant
September 16, 2022
Answered

External Drives not available for scratch disk in Photoshop after Catalina

  • September 16, 2022
  • 3 replies
  • 3505 views

After upgrading to Catalina, I can't add External Drives for scratch disk space in Photoshop. I read several threads on this subject and did the recommended fixes: adding Photoshop to my Mac Mini's (2018) Accessibility in Catalina's (v. 12.6) Security & Privacy, also added PS to Full Disk Access. I dragged the Photoshop 2022 system preferences folder from my user name > library > Preferences to the desktop and restarted Photoshop. None of this fixed my issue, which is that the external hard drives aren't showing up in Photoshop's scratch disk preferences panel. Those external drives are at 10 TB G-Drive Thunderbolt formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and a LaCie 10 TB Thunderbolt drive formated as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). I have never had this problem before Catalina, which is exactly what seems to be the catalyst for this phenomena's sudden appearence. What should I try next? 

    Correct answer TheDigitalDog

    In System Preferences, >Security & Privacy, >Full Disk Access, do you see Photoshop listed? If not, add it and try again.

    This expalins how to do the same process in Lightroom, just pick Photoshop instead:
    https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/quick-tips-how-to-give-full-disk-access-to-lightroom-classic-on-macos/td-p/12913413

    3 replies

    E
    ericm82468513
    Participant
    December 10, 2024

    I'm on Mac Sonoma 14.4.1 (23E224) and I have the same issue. I have tried:

    • differently formatted drives
    • reinstalling as earlier versions of photoshop
    • allowing FULL DISK ACCESS which is really insecure and a permission that Adobe should never have anyway
    • nuking photoshop permissions ("tccutil reset All com.adobe.photoshop" in Terminal)
    • restarting, restarting, reinstalling, restarting, reinstalling, etc etc

    All other adobe software allows removable disks to be used as scratch disk: illustrator, AE, premiere, etc etc. Photoshop does not even have the option to allow removable disk access in the Mac system dialog. This is a HUGE issue since adobe products are total memory hogs with their trash temp files that fill up a HD on opening, and don't delete on close.

     

    Please fix.

    Mohit Goyal
    Community Manager
    Mohit GoyalCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    December 12, 2024

    Hi there,

     

    Welcome to the Adobe Community!

     

    We're sorry for the trouble. Is the external drive detected in finder? What is file format of the external drive? You can select the external drive as a scratch disk in Photoshop preferences. Take a look at the following article on how you set up scratch disk: https://adobe.ly/4g7BgAX

     

    Let us know how it goes for you.

     

    Thanks,
    Mohit

    D Fosse
    Community Expert
    D FosseCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    June 1, 2023

    The most likely reason is still exFAT formatting, which doesn't work well (or at all) on recent MacOS versions. It used to work, and was originally intended as, cross-platform between Windows and MacOS.

     

    Reformat to APFS. This will of course wipe the drive, so if there's content you want to keep, copy it off the drive first.

     

     

      PECourtejoie
      Community Expert
      PECourtejoieCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      September 16, 2022

      Hello, If I Remember Correctly, Photoshop requires the drives to be recognized as non-removable by the OS to be able to use them as scratch disks, I'd investigate in that direction.

      S
      StevieDanAuthor
      Participant
      September 29, 2022

      I've been using external hard drives as scratch disk since Photoshop 2. Never saw this issue until upgrading to Monterey 12.6. I can see them in the finder. I can launch files, but I'm not sure what you mean by non-removable.

      TheDigitalDog
      TheDigitalDogCorrect answer
      Inspiring
      September 29, 2022

      In System Preferences, >Security & Privacy, >Full Disk Access, do you see Photoshop listed? If not, add it and try again.

      This expalins how to do the same process in Lightroom, just pick Photoshop instead:
      https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/quick-tips-how-to-give-full-disk-access-to-lightroom-classic-on-macos/td-p/12913413

      Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management/pluralsight"
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