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

[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}

[Benjamin Root]

How much free space does your Macbook have? Do you have an external drive you could plug in and set as scratch temporarily?

Best practice is to keep your system drive(s) as empty as possible, using additional drives (external especially in the case of portable computers) for storage.

[samarthsrivastav]

Around 6.25 GB. I'll look around for an external storage to use, thank you

[gener7]

It should be formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) or Photoshop won't list it as a scratch disk.

[Benjamin Root]

Yeah, 6.25 GB isn’t enough. I’d imagine your entire system would run faster with more space.

[michaelp84049931]

I have a brand new HP laptop and while attempting to open my Adobe Photoshop 7.0 I get the error that the scratch disks are full. Can you help me fix this please?

Thanks in advance.

Mike

[mardusmanicus]

Sorry, but this is BS (and still is in 2022).

[D Fosse]

Photoshop requires lots of free disk space to operate. Raster image editing moves huge amounts of data around, much more than any RAM you may have installed. All that temporary data has to go somewhere, so it's written to disk. That's the scratch disk.

This vastly exceeds the nominal file sizes. All your history states, for all open documents, go into the scratch file.

To be very clear: this is not a Photoshop setting or preference. This is real, physical disk space, and it's your responsibility to make sure it's there.

For casual use, you might get away with 50-100 GB free space. For serious work, you should have at least 500, preferably more.

If you're so low on space that Photoshop refuses to open, you'll very soon have much bigger problems than Photoshop. Your whole machine may freeze up any moment.

[D Fosse]

Photoshop requires lots of free disk space to operate. Raster image editing moves huge amounts of data around, much more than any RAM you may have installed. All that temporary data has to go somewhere, so it's written to disk. That's the scratch disk.

This vastly exceeds the nominal file sizes. All your history states, for all open documents, go into the scratch file.

To be very clear: this is not a Photoshop setting or preference. This is real, physical disk space, and it's your responsibility to make sure it's there.

For casual use, you might get away with 50-100 GB free space. For serious work, you should have at least 500, preferably more.

If you're so low on space that Photoshop refuses to open, you'll very soon have much bigger problems than Photoshop. Your whole machine may freeze up any moment.

[mardusmanicus]

lol @D Fosse. So, like (lets say) 20 years ago it was impossible to use Photoshop? Strange, I distinctly remember using it on a G4...

[D Fosse]

It was exactly the same 20 years ago. You needed scratch disk space relative to the file sizes you were working on. Absolutely nothing has changed. I started with Photoshop 6.0 in 2001, and we needed scratch disk space then too.

It's always easier to work with reality than banging your head against it in denial. Your choice.

If you get "scratch disk full" messages, your scratch disk is full and you need to provide more. That's all there is to it.

This has nothing as such to do with Photoshop. It has to do with raster image editing in general. It has to move massive amounts of data around, much more than any RAM you may have installed, and that data has to go somewhere. What sets Photoshop apart from other applications is its sophisticated memory management system that allows a separate scratch disk. Other applications have to rely on OS paging, which is much more limited and hits the ceiling pretty fast. As a result, Photoshop can work with file sizes orders of magnitude bigger than other applications, without crashing or freezing. It just keeps going.

As long as you have enough disk space.

[Nancy OShea]

I distinctly remember using it on a G4...

============

🙄 20 years ago, images were 1000% smaller.  Storage devices held megabytes and gigabytes of data.

Today's devices hold terabytes and cloud-based petabytes of data.

[rileyl28584999]

PHOTOSHOP WON"T OPEN! YOU CAN"T DO THAT IF YOU CAN"T OPEN IT!

[Dzine Geek]

Exactly!!!! and a MAC does not have ALT!!!!

[Trojan5F98]

I have a mac. If you still haven't fixed this problem, listen to what I'm about to say as I had the same problem. Clear up your storage, about ~10 GB should be optimum at the least.

You are getting the "Could not initialise" message from within the app. Although it isn't opening, the app is still running. So as you attempt to open it, hold down the Command and Option key simultaneously. This should prompt the menu that others are mentioning.

[Paul5CEE]

...yes it does?

[Michelle_Donaldson_UC]

I just had the same problem and found this on the Adobe photoshop support website (Optimize performance Photoshop CC😞

Note:

If Photoshop cannot launch because the scratch disk is full, hold down the Cmd + Opt keys (Mac) or Ctrl + Alt keys (Windows) on launch to set a new scratch disk.

I was able to reset the scratch disk and so far Photoshop is launching fine. Hope this helps someone!

[lmoren]

But Photoshop won't open with 8GB of free space? So I can't change it.

[Guest]

Hi

Try holding down Ctrl+ALT for Windows/ Option+Command key for Mac OS and keep them held down and start Photoshop, you should see this

Learn more about setting up Scratch Disks.

[brettm43820649]

THANK U ❤️

[rw46245409]

Thanks!   Worked like a charm.  boot disk is small 110gb , but storage is 6 TB.

[jonathans8167397]

CAN SOME ONE GIVE THIS MAN A BEER!! THANKS!

[darkavenuefilm]

Thank you for this! Worked for me, but have to do it by opening Photoshop from the menu rather than desktop shortcut (which I did at first).

[mirandak45946045]

What if this doesn't work? I'm having the same issues, I had it set as my external hard-drive and somehow it didn't remember. I'm pushing CTRL+ALT and nothing. I get the spinning rainbow wheel of death.

SOS

[Cherylet]

yeah for this forum...worked like a charm!!

[pattanak95879118]

Thanks! help me a lot