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P: How to fix Photoshop Scratch Disks Full Error?

New Here ,
Jan 19, 2018 Jan 19, 2018

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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?Screen Shot 2018-01-19 at 8.36.51 PM.png

 

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

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correct answers 2 Correct answers

New Here , Dec 02, 2017 Dec 02, 2017

This is super late, but for anyone else who runs into this issue...Similar thing happened to me. Do you make new files by pixel size or by inches? I usually go by pixels (ex: 2500x3000 or something like that), but I apparently I had accidentally switched to inches and it would only let me max the numbers to 1000. Went back to pixels and it all worked out!

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Adobe Employee , May 05, 2021 May 05, 2021

Hi all,

 

We're sorry for the scratch disk issue. Take a look at the following troubleshooting article which can help you to resolve the "Scratch disk is full" error: Troubleshoot scratch disk full errors in Photoshop

 

Please have a look and let us know if that helps.

 

Thanks,

Mohit

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Community Beginner ,
Oct 10, 2018 Oct 10, 2018

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This is disk management

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Contributor ,
Jun 03, 2021 Jun 03, 2021

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I'm using Photoshop 2019. I have a 5TB LaCie that Photoshop does not see that I would like to set up as my third scratch disk and I'm ready to scream!

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Community Beginner ,
Jun 05, 2021 Jun 05, 2021

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I'm using an older version, but mine wouldn't see any disk over 1TB. I had
to make a smaller virtual volume on the disk I wanted and then PS could see
it.

Russ

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Community Expert ,
Oct 11, 2018 Oct 11, 2018

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This could be a permissions issue in your user account. This should normally run smoothly after "run as administrator" once.

Can you right-click on the disk and go into properties and tick "take ownership" or "all permissions" or something like that?

Or maybe just try to reset Photoshop Preferences in case it just lost its bearings.

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New Here ,
Nov 10, 2019 Nov 10, 2019

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You saved my life

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New Here ,
Dec 07, 2019 Dec 07, 2019

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Had the same problem, but running it as an admin - just once - allowed me to select the HDD that wasnt showing up. Now whenever i run PS the drive is still missing from the list but i guess it is still selected as the main scratch disk. Thanks for the tip D_Fosse.

 

Update: nope, i always have to start as admin to be able to select that drive.

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Explorer ,
Jan 25, 2020 Jan 25, 2020

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I googled "set app to open as administrator by default," and this answer solved my problem:

 

How to Always Run Apps as Administrator
  1. Open the Start menu.
  2. In the All Apps list, scroll down and find the app you want to change (Photoshop).
  3. Right-click on the app's name and go to More > Open file location.
  4. File Explorer will open. ...
  5. Click on Properties and select the Shortcut tab.
  6. Select Advanced.
  7. Finally, mark the checkbox next to Run as administrator.

Now Photoshop runs as administrator by default, and sees all of my drives.

Hope this helps you, too!

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New Here ,
Aug 27, 2020 Aug 27, 2020

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But running the photoshop as an admin prevents me from dragging a picture to photoshop.

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New Here ,
Aug 05, 2022 Aug 05, 2022

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This worked for me, running Photoshop as an administrator gave me the choice to select drives.

 

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New Here ,
Jan 09, 2024 Jan 09, 2024

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This fixed my issue. Resseting photoshop preferences and restarting PS. When i check scratch disks my hdd is now show with all available space

 

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New Here ,
Jan 09, 2017 Jan 09, 2017

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Photoshop keeps telling me that my scratch disk is full, I have checked it and I have 56.66gb free on my mac so I am slightly confused as to how much space is actually needed for photoshop to fully function. Can anyone help???

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Community Expert ,
Jan 09, 2017 Jan 09, 2017

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What are your Performance and Scratch Disk Preferences settings?

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/optimize-photoshop-cc-performance.html

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Contributor ,
Jan 09, 2017 Jan 09, 2017

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Do You have more than one partition?

Check in scratch disk settings, where You have setted scratch disk, and add maybe second partition (which have that 56,6GB) and then try again.

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LEGEND ,
Jan 09, 2017 Jan 09, 2017

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And check AT THE TIME OF THE ERROR MESSAGE and before clicking OK whether the free space is actually used. 50GB is not so much.

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Community Expert ,
Jan 09, 2017 Jan 09, 2017

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Yes you need to check the free space while the message is being displayed.  I have seen Photoshop use over 120GB of scratch space on my machine.  It depends one what you do how much space Photoshop will use. When you close Photoshop down Photoshop will return all scratch space it used back to free space.

JJMack

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New Here ,
Mar 20, 2017 Mar 20, 2017

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Hi,

what should we do in such case?

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Advocate ,
Jan 09, 2017 Jan 09, 2017

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If you work with really large file - it's common to use your disk as additional magazine instead of RAM.

If you see message about Scratch Disk - no way - you will lost your work. It means your machine have not enougth memory to run and savbe your artwork. Sorry - it's true.

But,

If you see this message try to go to Edit menu and choose Purge optin. Purge All can help you to save your work (maybe)

Simply

You have very large image, many layers (Smart objects) and full memory usage

Pawel

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Community Expert ,
Jan 09, 2017 Jan 09, 2017

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Scratch disk is a fixed size on your hard drive. So while you may indicate you have 56 GB free space on your hard drive, there is no correlation to what PS is actually using.

Like others have indicated you are going to have to increase your scratch disc size to compensate for the larger files you are working with.

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Community Expert ,
Jan 10, 2017 Jan 10, 2017

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The original poster does not seem to have a lot more to say on the issue so far.

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LEGEND ,
Mar 20, 2017 Mar 20, 2017

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In such a case look at details. How much space is available? Does it really fill up? Unless you have a file accidentally too large, add disk space or free some. It's your computer, be in charge of it.

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New Here ,
Dec 02, 2017 Dec 02, 2017

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This is super late, but for anyone else who runs into this issue...Similar thing happened to me. Do you make new files by pixel size or by inches? I usually go by pixels (ex: 2500x3000 or something like that), but I apparently I had accidentally switched to inches and it would only let me max the numbers to 1000. Went back to pixels and it all worked out!

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New Here ,
Jul 06, 2018 Jul 06, 2018

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Thank you!! I had done the same thing (cm instead of pixels) and could not figure out why a blank 1920x1080 file would be using 50GB... Silly mistake but did not think to check!

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Community Beginner ,
Aug 13, 2020 Aug 13, 2020

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Saved me, too. Thank you! 

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New Here ,
May 19, 2022 May 19, 2022

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Thank you! This saved me!

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New Here ,
Dec 17, 2023 Dec 17, 2023

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Heyy, been on this issue for days now and this just helped me fix it. Thank you so much 🫶

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