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Artur28778655c2if
Participating Frequently
June 13, 2025
Question

photoshop takes hundreds of gb memory on batch

  • June 13, 2025
  • 3 replies
  • 306 views

hi, i've been dealing with this issue for quite a long time and finaly decided to post. when do batch processing in ps after some time i run out of memory and have dozens of ssd gb taken by ps reservation. this forces me to stop batching , spend extra time rearranging images , all for restarting the app so that the space is available again which is by itself a foolish approach as it should be possible to clean all caching after every iteration. is there a way to enable it? purging all history doesn't help 

3 replies

Stephen Marsh
Community Expert
Stephen MarshCommunity Expert
Community Expert
June 13, 2025

What steps does the batch action perform?

 

Posting a screenshot of the action panel with steps expanded for clarity would help.

Conrad_C
Community Expert
Conrad_CCommunity Expert
Community Expert
June 13, 2025

Some quick ideas that may or may not help…

 

If the batch process opens images and processes them but never saves and closes them, then every open image continues to be held in memory (RAM or scratch disk), and the History of each open image is also being held in memory. The batch operation might use less RAM if the action or script includes a step that saves and closes each image.

 

If the action or script does close each image when it’s done processing it, then it might help to add one of the cache-clearing commands from the Edit > Purge submenu, such as Edit > Purge > All. For an action, remember that adding a command doesn’t mean you have to record it, you can just use the Insert Menu Item command on the Actions panel menu.

 

If the action or script is running something that can only be processed in RAM (e.g. it can’t use the scratch disk, like some plug-ins), then it is a problem that you have so many other memory-hungry applications running at the same time. Quit any app you don’t need so that there can be more RAM available for Photoshop to run its batch. Like if the batch is running in Photoshop 2025, then it would help to quit Photoshop 2024 and Photoshop Beta.

    A
    Artur28778655c2ifAuthor
    Participating Frequently
    June 13, 2025

    thanks! i will check if the images get closed. regiarding memory-hungry apps it's not about other apps it's about photoshop taking 100+gb as you can see on the screenshot... when overriding 'save options' do you recommend to record document close as well? as i understand it doesn't by deafult? 

    Conrad_C
    Community Expert
    Conrad_CCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    June 13, 2025

    I’m trying to remember exactly how it works…The Batch dialog box does have a Save and Close function described below.

     

    OK, I found some batch processing tips from an old Photoshop book (Real World Adobe Photoshop CS3) so I hope it still works this way today:

    quote

    Destination lets you control what happens to the processed images. Choose None to leave them open in Photoshop after processing. To save the changed files and close them, choose Save and Close; Folder lets you designate a folder in which to save the processed images.…

     

    Rules for saving files. To make sure that the processed files get saved in the format you want, you need to record a Save step in the action that will be applied in Batch. This Save step dictates the file format…and options… Now comes the second counterintuitive bit. You must turn on the option labeled Override Action “Save As” Commands in the Batch dialog, or the files won’t get saved where you want them, won’t get saved with the names you want, or possibly won’t even get saved at all! When you turn on this option, the file format and parameters recorded in the action’s Save step will be applied when saving the file, but the name and destination will be overridden by the options you specify in the Batch dialog.

     

    Rules for running a batch operation. Two other settings commonly trip people up. Unless you turn on the Suppress File Open Options Dialogs check box, the Camera Raw dialog pops up whenever the batch opens a file, and waits for you to do something. Turning on this option just opens the image directly, bypassing the Camera Raw dialog. The Camera Raw settings for each image are used, but the batch operation isn’t interrupted by the appearance of the dialog. If the workflow settings recorded in the action result in an image in a color space other than your Photoshop working space, you should also turn on the Suppress Color Profile Warnings check box; otherwise the batch may get interrupted by the Profile Mismatch warning.


    Are the source files raw? If so, there might be additional considerations, like instead of Save and Close you might have to dictate what non-raw format they need to be saved to.

      kglad
      Community Expert
      kgladCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      June 13, 2025

      in the future, to find the best place to post your message, use the list here, https://community.adobe.com/

      p.s. i don't think the adobe website, and forums in particular, are easy to navigate, so don't spend a lot of time searching that forum list. do your best and we'll move the post (like this one has already been moved) if it helps you get responses.



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