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}

[TImoney]

Thank you!!

[Raxsoller]

This really helps. Thanks

[erikm55088390]

I had to search WAY too long for this! This should be more obvious, more easy to find or know somehow. I had the issue that the scratch disk was no longer there, and in order to change the scratch disk you have to launch it. Finding this simple key combination earlier would have saved me about 2 hours of googling! Thank you!

[Zylaris]

Hello,

I just have had a weird problem :

I always do banners that I sent to the printer and today I had a problem. I could work on the file (doc; 742.8Mo/931.2Mo) the file is 267x208cm at 150 dpi.

I could work no problem but when saving as PDF it said that there wasn't enough space. I could get around it so saved and rebooted the iMac.

On the start, I opened Photoshop and it said that the scratch disks were full thus impossible to star Photoshop.

I went to the appel logo and clicked "about this Mac/storage." it says that my HD has has 231 Go free out of 1.03 To.

The document I work on is stored in an external drive  of 3To (518 free Go).

I have 32 Go of memory DDR4 and allowed photoshop to use 90% if needed.

I'm under Catalina.

When I chose the scratch drive it tells me that my HD - Data has only 26 Go free space when I empied a lot of space from videos etc.

Now when I go in Disk Utilities it says that my Fusion Drive has Mac-HD and MacHD - Data. Mac HD is almost empy and Mac HD - Data is almost full with only 26 Go of free space. How is that possible?

I just tried to uninstall via the Creative Cloud App but it give me an error to unstall #105

Any clues?

[Zylaris]

Here is what I found as I solved it. My drop box needed to be renewed but the credit card was expired thus I had everything being copied into my HDD filling up my computer. I updated my credit card and had access to the whole drop box thus had again space. 

hope it helps!

[Jack5DC7]

Worked a treat for me thanks

[D Fosse]

That doesn't solve the underlying problem of a disk that is almost full. It may work for a short while, but it will come back.

It cannot be emphasized enough: this is not a Photoshop setting or preference. It's real, physical disk space, and if you don't have enough of it, Photoshop can't function. Not to mention that your whole machine may freeze up. Clear out more space! that's the only real answer to this.

[yvettef93596456]

How do you change scratch disks? I only get 2 choices None or Hard drive on 2nd, 3rd and 4th. First option is Startup or Hard drive

[gener7]

First you must have a second internal or external drive attached and it must be formatted for the system it is on.

HFS+ for Mac, and NTFS if it is Windows. Photoshop will not list it otherwise even if it shows up on the Desktop.

There is a drop-down menu for each drive in the dialog. Click on it to see if your disk is listed and select it. Click OK to confirm.

[bigfrog]

If we do have an internal drive, how do we format it for NTFS. I only have the option to format it to c:/

[bigfrog]

I looked and it is formatted correctly, but it still doesn't show up in the drop down menu.

[jordanweston_]

I have put my hard drive in and changed the disk drive to that. But does that mean that I can’t use photoshop without my hard drive  plugged in ??

[Test Screen Name]

Not if your internal drive is too full to work.

[Antenym]

I found a fix for a scratch disk issue that would almost make my D: and E: drives full, (scratch disk locations)*

What happened was I tried to make a new document in 1000x1000. Once I did that, my two D: and E: drives went from 300 GB and 200 GB space free, to 6 GB free on both. The issue was that I used "inches", and not "pixels" when creating the document. I didn't find a fix for this until 8 hours, so anyone else with that issue can relax with 500 GB of temp files overloading their drives .

[Cpt420]

this is what I was looking for, thanks man! made the same mistake lol

[ackerman94]

Hello,

I am currently having an issue with scratch disks where I cannot open up Photoshop whatsoever to change my preferences, and it gives me no options to change or update my scratch disk preferences. Please help!

[D Fosse]

Your disk really is full, 3.75GB free is almost down to nothing at all. You don't get an option to change it because that's the only disk you have.

You really need to clear out space ASAP! You will soon have much bigger problems than Photoshop. Consider this an early warning before the machine freezes up completely.

[deanned28105396]

D_Fosse, This response, although perhaps accurate, is not helpful for me. Ok, so I need to clear space ASAP. What kind of space are we talking about? What type of data needs to be eliminated? I have very little on this computer - it is new. But I have about the same disk space - 3.75GB as the above example, which sounds like a lot of space to me. So again, what kind of files or data needs to be eliminated?

thank you

[Pete.Green]

Hi all,

We have several suggestions for the Scratch disk full error listed on our KB article here: https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/scratch-disks-preferences.html#Troubleshootscratchdisksarefu...

Please have a look and try the suggestions listed there.

Let us know if that helps.

Regards,

Pete

[Mollierutt12]

Please help! It won't let me do anything because 'my scratch disk is full' even tho in the preferences I have my hard drive with over 800 GB selected. What do I do? (Sorry for bad quality picture) 

thank you! 

 

[Akash Sharma]

Hi there,

Sorry that you're getting an error "Scratch disk full" while using Photoshop.

Which version of Photoshop and the operating system you're working with? In Photoshop, you can check that by going to Help > System Info.

Would you mind checking the troubleshooting 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

[lambiloon]

hi check the following video hope it helps you.....regards

https://youtu.be/kX9SbSnqY0g

[RikkiRLD]

I cant even get on to the photoshop page. I say my disk is full, then close.

[rayan0D45]

I'm having the same problem. My photoshop is up to date too as I only downloaded it yesterday.

[Akash Sharma]

Hi there,

Sorry that you're getting a Scratch disk error while using Photoshop on your computer.

Which exact version of Photoshop are you using and what is your computer's OS? How many external drives or different partitions do you have available on your computer? 

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 it that helps?

Thanks,

Akash