How to delete Photoshop cache or temporary files

[RedCarpet310]

How do I delete Photoshop cache or temporary files? Photoshop is filling up my C drive. I've changes the cache folder to another drive but I have to deal with the issue now before the other drive is filled up too.

Thank you.

[gener7 · Accepted solution]

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.

Gene

[RedCarpet310]

Thanks Gene. I saw the Local>Temp folder but there's not "Photoshop Temp" folder in there

[gener7]

Photoshop Temp are the Photoshop temp files, there is no folder.

Gene

[RedCarpet310]

Thanks. That gave me about 62GB of space. I still need to find about 100GB. I know where to find Preimere Cache files, so those are not included in the unaccounted space. I'll need help with Encore, Bridge, and other Adobe Apps cache or temp files.

My 250GB C drive was only 46GB used when I installed Production Preimum, now it's 150GB used.

[gener7 · Accepted solution]

Well, I can help you on the Bridge Cache.

In Bridge: Edit > Preferences > Cache > Purge Cache should do the trick.

As for the other programs, you must visit their respective forums and ask for help there. Be sure to specify your OS version and program version, it will get an answer much faster since there are Macs as well as Windows based PCs running Adobe products.

Gene

[RedCarpet310]

Thank you.

[RedCarpet310]

I'm running Adobe CC oon Windows 7. Thank you.

[ShelleyT]

Gene, I am having the same issue.  I found the temp files just as you described.  However, they only appear when PS is actually open, in which case it won't let me delete them because it is open!  When I close PS, the files disappear from the temp folder.  Please help!  Thank you.

[gener7]

I think this is normal behavior, a scratch file set aside for the during the operation of Photoshop. Mine is 176 MB. When PS is closed, then I get back that 176.

The temp files I was thinking of was a result of a crash or freeze, but I understand that's no longer a problem.  I do not see those anymore.

You would want to look at cleaning your OS temp files to free up space.

The Bridge cache is different. Basically thumbnail data for quick display in Bridge. That can build up as time goes on.

[ShelleyT]

Thanks so much for the reply.  Do you know how I would clean out my temp files on a PC?  And I want to make sure I understand correctly that temp files are not needed and it won't hurt to delete them-?  (I don't use Bridge.)  Thanks again.

[gener7]

Start Menu > enter %temp% to get to your appdata temp directory.

Ctrl-a to select all in that directory. Delete to move it to the trash can. Empty the trash can.

Don't worry about breaking anything. Temp means exactly that. The files are not meant to stay there.

There may be a few files in use that can't be deleted. Don't worry much about that, they take up little space.

[ShelleyT]

Yay, you saved the day for me!  PS is moving along fine now!  Have a great evening.

[gener7]

You too! Thanks for letting me know that it worked for you.

[shoaib26200734hyum]

Gener, that was the best thing I could do for my hard drive. Are there any other temp files that I don't know of and can get rid of?

I just freed up 60gb of space

[dss2120]

Wow, I never use this site, but I logged in after forever to say thank you for this. I checked the temp folder and found I had amassed over 500GB of temp files over the years! I cannot believe I went this long without knowing. It happened so slowly I didn't even notice my drive filling up. Amazing!

[gener7]

500  GB? That comp is a compulsive hoarder! Glad you could find answers here.

Gene

[nilesh5EEE]

hey gene, i deleted the temp files... but when i turn on ps i get many temp files of 64gb and more. And that is occupying all my ssd.

[nilesh5EEE]

i get atleast 5 to 7 temp files each, accumalating upto 360+ gb occupying all of my ssd

[RobertoBlake]

The Purge command is very helpful, your machine can get really bogged down otherwise. I hope everyone will try and share this information as much as possible, because a lot of people really just don't know about it! Now that I think about it, time for a new blog post!

[derekw46532274]

Hey, its famous youtuber and all around good guy RobertoBlake!  Thanks for the comment.  Fellow Youtuber here, not nearly as famous, but never the less. 
I am consistently surprised at just how opaque Adobe software can be.  One day you are working and the next, it just throws you an exception and tells you you can't work, no reason why, no way to fix it.  Just, screw you, maybe you have a deadline, maybe not, but screw off, I am not working today.

One day, they will make software that is user friendly and intuitive, with helpful hints to fix problems like this.  Or someone else will and blow away their market share.

But that day is not today.

[vinays43738055]

Hi Everyone,

I'm using genuine Photoshop CC 2021. My problem is Photoshop hanging and working slow on my specific user profile. so how to solve this problem? Please help me

System Configuration

CPU:i9 9th Generation

RAM: 32GB DDR4 

HDD: 2TB SSD 

Graphics: Nvidia Graphics 11 GB 

OS: Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit 

Thanks

Vinay

[Mohit Goyal]

Hi Vinay,

We're sorry for the slow performance issue. Could you please let us know the exact version of Photoshop you are using now? Also, check out the following article to optimize Photoshop performance: https://helpx.adobe.com/in/photoshop/kb/optimize-photoshop-cc-performance.html

Let us know if that helps.

Thanks,

Mohit

[maguentert]

Yes. Adobe and Creative Cloud fill up the temp folder quickly.

I have a small NVMe drive as C so on a PC I went into SYSTEM Environment / Advanced and moved both temp folders to an "I" drive and named it Ntemp.   I also moved the ACR folder to the "I" drive.

Issues created by this -- those new Neural Filters won't download successfully if your temp files aren't on the C drive.

On my desktop I have a shortcut to the NTemp folder.

Next to it on the desktop is a .bat file I created that deletes the Ntemp folder and the ACR folder, and, in the same .bat file recreates the folders if they were deleted as well.    Folders won't be deleted if there's stuff in them, i.e. an open file explorer creates a temp file, browser files that are currently open.

To create a .bat file just start a notepad document and type commands.   The ones below work nicely.   When finished save as      delete tmp.bat        onto your desktop for regular use.

Remember that when you read the contents of my .bat file -- I moved both temp folders to the I drive named Ntemp. 

Through Photoshop preferences I moved ACR folder to the I drive as well.

rd /s /q "I:\NTemp\"              This line empties the NTemp folder
mkdir I:\NTemp                    This line makes a new NTemp folder ONLY if the whole thing was deleted
rd /s /q "I:\ACR\"                  This line empties the ACR folder
mkdir I:\ACR                        This line makes a new ACR folder ONLY if the whole thing was deleted.

Type only the stuff on the left return after each line.    NOT the This line stuff.

Lastly, if you don't trust or have any questions about this post just create a "test" folder somwhere. 

Create a "delete test.bat" file.   Adjust the parameters from my .bat file and try it.   Just replace the stuff between the "    " with the path to your test folder.

Once you get comfortable.  Try moving your Google Cache folder to another drive and add it to your bat file to be deleted.

[maguentert]

the on the desktop      .bat      file described continues to work well for me on a W11 PC deleting from my E drive.

I use it to delete TEMPS   ACR    GoogleCache   BridgeCache    Firefox cache    and again new folders IF the mentioned folders are completely deleted -- using "mkdir E:\temp"   etc.

I've since added      cleanmgr C:           to the end of the .bat file which bring up the Disk Cleanup program where I get to choose to delete either the files on C or select the Clean up system files.    Works well.