P: How to fix Photoshop Scratch Disks Full Error?

[samarthsrivastav]

I am running Photoshop CC on my MacBook Air with macOS Sierra. Every time I attempt to open Photoshop through any means, the following message appears: "Could not initialize Photoshop because the scratch disks are full", and Photoshop does not open. I tried clearing space from my Mac in general including several GB worth of apps and removing several cache files, but nothing seems to work. I also tried holding down the command and option keys to reveal the Scratch Disk Preferences, and it lets me select the Startup and MacIntosh HD. Again, nothing worked. Anyone know how to fix this message, and/or clear scratch disk space?

{Moderator note: Edited the thread title PS-65057}

[D Fosse]

@vorta371 

Can you see the drive in the operating system?

External drives are not recommended as PS scratch disk. I would advise to clear out space on your system drive, if you don't have other internal drives that can be used. Use your external drives to store everything that isn't related to the operating system or your applications.

If you have to use an external drive, make sure it's formatted to NTFS (Windows) or APFS (Mac). ExFAT is not very reliable. You should also check in the OS that your user account has full read/write permissions..

[aandrade01]

HI, I was trying to enter to Photoshop but it wont open since my scratch disks are full. Ive seen tons of tutorials but none would help me to empty the scratch disks. Can someone help me?

[marliton]

Hi. Essentially, you need as much free space as possible in your Scratch Disk. Maybe these links can be helpful:

Troubleshoot scratch disk full errors in Photoshop

P: Photoshop won't open because scratch disks are full

[Mindy5C77]

I was trying to load Watercolor Artist actions into my 2018 PS version.  I was able to load the Watercolor Artist and WCA Brushes, but I was not able to load the WCA Patterns.  It needed version 20, 21 or 22.  I updated (21.2.10), but now I am receiving "Scratch Disk Full" (Mac 10.13.6) and unable to open the application at all.   I am probably not going to be able to figure out how to change the settings.  Is there a way to at least restore my older PS version so I can still use?  Thank you for your suggestions.  

[nikunj.m]

Hi,

We're sorry about the trouble due to the Scratch disk issue while trying to launch Photoshop. The scratch disk is basically the amount of free space on the computers storage that Photoshop requires to create the necessary temporary files while launching and working on project files. How much free space do you have on your computers drive?

You can check out: https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/troubleshoot-scratch-disk-is-full.html

Let us know if it helps!

Regards,

Nikunj

[Mindy5C77]

This helped! Thank you.--
Mindy McQueen, Guest Teacher
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Texas Certified
Prefer afternoons or Fridays

[sincere_RippleB833]

Photoshop will not recognize my LaCie 5TB external drive...it won't even see it!

[ChelseyDixon]

I've read every post on scratch discs, so don't refer me to one of those posts, I've googled everything, I've been on hold with Adobe customer support for 25 minutes.  I can't change the location of my scratch disc, nothing works, I need an actual person to help walk me through this.  I'm doing step by step everything every blog says to do, it won't work.  I'm paying a ton of money for this program that has been nothing but a nightmare from day one.  I have to use it because my photogrophy class requires it.  This so seriously shouldn't be this hard. I've used free apps on my phone that work better than this.  I need some actual help.

[Nancy OShea]

The devil is in the details.  Tell us about your computer system.

1. Which operating system build #?
2. How many hard drives do you have and what type are they?
3. Which version of Photoshop?
4. Do you have administrative rights to change settings on your computer?

Scratch disks cannot be

• Network drives
• Thumb drives
• Any USB-2 drive

[r-bin]

how to enable external usb-flash drive as scratch

look https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop/unable-to-select-new-scratch-disk-on-photoshop-2020/m-p/108...

)))

[Nancy OShea]

I don't know which tutorial you're following but this is the official Adobe help article for your  reference.

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

[lindab7211400]

I have tried two different external disks.  Both are formatted as Mac OS Extended journaled.  Any ideas what could be

wrong?

[Akash Sharma]

Hi there,

Sorry that Photoshop is not recognizing your external drive as a scratch disk drive.

I'd recommend that you checkout the steps mentioned in this article https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/scratch-disks-preferences.html#Troubleshootscratchdiskfuller... and let us know if that helps.

Thanks,

Akash

[Mozie]

Apparently my scratch disk is full. I hold down the Ctrl + Alt keys and try to open PhotoShop but I keep getting the message that it's full. It won't open! So how do I get to the settings then?

I am a designer, not a techie, the 'instructions' are not aimed at technically challenged people.

If I uninstall then reinstall will that fix it? HELP!

[Akash Sharma]

Hi there,

Sorry that Photoshop is showing an error message that says scratch disks are full on your computer. 

Which version of Photoshop are you using? Would you mind checking the steps mentioned in this article https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/scratch-disks-preferences.html#Troubleshootscratchdisksarefu... and let us know if that helps?

Thanks,

Akash

[Mozie]

I'm running PhotoShop CC 2020.... I cannot find these .psp files on my laptop... HELP!

[D Fosse]

How much free disk space do you have?

Photoshop moves so much data around that it needs free disk space as temporary working memory. RAM can't handle all of it, so it needs to write to disk.

If you don't have the necessary disk space available, Photoshop can't operate.

[Mozie]

2.73GB... not enough?

[D Fosse]

Note even close. You need ten to twenty times that at least.

But quite aside from Photoshop, your disk is dangerously full, to the point that it's an emergency situation. Your whole machine can freeze up very soon. You should never allow your system disk to fill up beyond 70% or so - Windows needs free space, your other applications need free space.

In other words, you need to get another disk immediately, maybe an external, and transfer as much as you possibly can ASAP. Just get it off your system drive.

[davescm]

Photoshop is freshly open on my system currently (which has 64MB RAM), with no files open,  and the scratch disk size is 5.3GB on a disk with 1.2TB free space. So no, 2.73 GB free space is not enough. In fact if your scratch disk is sharing space with your operating system (as opposed to being on a separate disk) then you are going to run into much bigger issues than Photoshop not opening.

Dave

[Mozie]

Ok, thanks, let me clean up my hard drive....

[Josselyn5C73]

I'm trying to use an external drive specifically for my scratch disks for Adobe Photoshop, but whenever I open the preferences to select my flash drive it doesnt show up. I've quit, logged out of, and even uninstalled photoshop and reinstalled it after my external drive connected to my computer but I still can't get it to show up as an option. Am I doing something wrong?

[curtisk40606096]

Hey there, I recently renewed my photography plan but I cannot seem to open photoshop.

Upon launching the application I am greeted with this message.

I would change the scratch disks to my e: drive, which has 2 terabytes available, but I am not able to click on anything.

This goes for basically everything on my computer, I am getting messages saying that my c: drive is full, which it is, but I cannot figure out how to change/move things to my e: drive.

Any help is appreciated.

[Test Screen Name]

You generally can’t move any system files or apps. You can COPY your own files and delete the original. Whether this helps depends on what your C drive is full of. You need to examine what is using the space, in detail. You could waste time moving thousands of small files for no gain.

[D Fosse]

First of all, run Windows Disk Cleanup. If necessary run several passes, progressively checking more options.

Most of the remaining junk tends to accumulate under your user account. This is where you can really free up space.

Just to start somewhere random, look at you Bridge cache. It can easily grow to tens of gigabytes - and note that previous versions' caches do not get deleted when you uninstall! There are lots of these.

There is an excellent free utility called WinDirStat (google it). Armed with this, you can really clean house. This is a screenshot from my own system - the outlined area is my user account. Expand the folder and you can chase the files down to the last dusty corner:

The big red blobs to the right are hibernation and pagefile. You can disable hibernation and reclaim all that space - I don't remember how, but I'm sure someone else does.