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A
AnaHotaling
Participant
May 28, 2021
Question

Need Assistance Selecting a New Scratch Disk

  • May 28, 2021
  • 3 replies
  • 1513 views

I keep getting alerts that my scratch disks are almost full ... or I can't launch Photoshop because the scratch disks are full. I "Purge All" frequently. I've searched my hard drive for ".tmp" files. I reboot multiple times per day. Nothing is helping. I would like to change my scratch disk to my external hard drive, which is always plugged in and has plenty of TB to spare. But when I topen the preferences to change scratch disks, the only thing that shows up is my computer's hard drive with the checked box. I cannot add my external hard drive. Am I missing instructions on how to get my external hard drive to show up so I can switch my scratch disks to it?

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3 replies

davescm
Community Expert
davescmCommunity Expert
Community Expert
May 29, 2021

What format is used on the external drive you want to use for scratch?

Dave

M
Maggio0D4C
Participant
May 28, 2021

because of this I hate this program and sorry I bought it. This is crazy.

    TheDigitalDog
    TheDigitalDog
    Inspiring
    May 28, 2021
    @Maggio0D4C wrote:

    because of this I hate this program and sorry I bought it. This is crazy.

    Fine, let's close the discussion down if you don't want help. This is a user to user forum; so if you don't want to tax other uses helping you, great! 

    Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management/pluralsight"
    A
    AnaHotalingAuthor
    Participant
    May 29, 2021

    Not sure what precipitated your response here. I feel MaggioD4C has a right to express frustration, even if it doesn't directly assist me with this issue. I certainly can relate to their frustration!

    TheDigitalDog
    TheDigitalDog
    Inspiring
    May 28, 2021

    Start first by trashing your Photoshop preferences. It may help.

    Press and hold Alt+Control+Shift (Windows) or Option+Command+Shift (Mac OS) immediately after launching Photoshop. You will be prompted to delete the current settings.

    (Mac OS only) Open the Preferences folder in the Library folder*, and drag the Adobe Photoshop CS Settings folder to the Trash.

    This action only affects the items found in the preferences dialog box. Numerous program settings are stored in the Adobe Photoshop Preferences file, including general display options, file-saving options, performance options, cursor options, transparency options, type options, and options for plug‑ins and scratch disks. Brushes (and lots of other setting) are not affected by the above instructions for deleting preferences. You may wish to make a screen capture of the settings in the Preferences dialog to reset them prior to deleting of this file.

    Also: https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/preferences.html

    *To manually delete Photoshop preferences:
    Quit Photoshop.
    Navigate to Photoshop's Preferences folder:
    macOS: Users/[user name]/Library/Preferences/Adobe Photoshop [version] Settings
    Windows 10: Users/[user name]/AppData/Roaming/Adobe/Adobe Photoshop [version]/Adobe Photoshop [version] Settings

    Note:
    The user Library folder is hidden by default on macOS. To access files in the hidden user Library folder, see How to access hidden user library files.
    Drag the entire Adobe Photoshop [Version] Settings folder to the desktop or somewhere safe for a back-up of your settings 

    Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management/pluralsight"
      A
      AnaHotalingAuthor
      Participant
      May 29, 2021

      Thank you! I'll give this a try. I've been using Photoshop since the early 1990s and I've never encountered this issue before. So odd that it's occuring now, when computers have far more memory.

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