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Scratch Disk full - But lots of space on disk?

Community Beginner ,
May 12, 2023 May 12, 2023

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I am getting scratch disks are full errors while working on and saving a few 3-6 GB PSBs. 

If I go to preferences>scratch disks, its saying I have around 100gb free space. But in Mac os the same drive has over 1TB free space? 

 

Have tried restarting photoshop and mac. Also Tried resetting photoshop preferences. 

 

Appriciate if anyone can point me in the direction of what might be going on. 

 

M1 Max Macbook Pro - OS 13.3.1 

Photoshop 24.4.1

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LEGEND ,
May 12, 2023 May 12, 2023

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Please run Photoshop until you get the "scratch disk full" message. Then LEAVE THE MESSAGE ON SCREEN AND PHOTOSHOP RUNNING - and please check how full the disk is again (screen shot 2 again). Please post the screen shot. Only after taking the shot reply to the message allow Photoshop to stop. (Why? It's checking whether Photoshop really has filled the disk somehow, or if it is giving a false report).

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Community Beginner ,
May 12, 2023 May 12, 2023

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Hi I actually did that when it said full scratch disk but didnt post , attached below, said 30ishGB free in scratch disk prefs, so full considering I had a few 6gb files open.

 

Could it be something to do with Mac OS 'Purgeable space'? As you can see in my second screenshot is says (1.37 TB Purgable). It seems that photoshop doesnt recognise that 'purgeable' space and is considering the disk as full? 

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Community Beginner ,
May 12, 2023 May 12, 2023

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To add to this - why would photoshop say only 172GB free space even when there are now files open and after a fresh restart? 

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LEGEND ,
May 12, 2023 May 12, 2023

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But what you posted there is a screen shot from Photoshop - not MacOS. So far as I know, there's no way you could get that screen shot from Photoshop when it was still showing the "disk full" error. 

 

If you agree it actually is filling the disk up, we don't need that. It's probably the size of your files. What is the size in pixels? How many layers? How many history states? And how many files open? This all adds up (or multiplies, in most cases), and you says your PSB files start out in gigabytes.

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Community Beginner ,
May 12, 2023 May 12, 2023

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Apologies I miss read your comment, thought you wanted to see the photoshop scratch disk prefs. I have recreated the problem and attached screenshots below. 

 

Scratch disks are full > Mac HD that is being used as the sole scratch disk has 1.34TB free space (1.32TB purgeable) 

 

Other screenshot is the scratch disk prefs immediately after clicking ok on the photoshop error.

 

Its not that I think photoshop is using up all the scratch space, its that I think it does not recognise for some reason all the free space available on the mac os disk. 

 

Files are around 8000px multi layered PSBs. Between 2-6GB uncompressed. I believe having 1.37TB free scratch space available should be able to handle these easily but for some reason photoshop does not recognise the space.

 

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Community Expert ,
May 12, 2023 May 12, 2023

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Yes, I have also seen extremely large discrepancies reported by macOS Finder, macOS Disk Utility, and the Photoshop Scratch Disks preference. On my Mac right now, Photoshop Scratch Disks says there are 102.63GB free, but macOS Finder says the same volume has 188.83GB available, and macOS Disk Utility says there are 110.16GB free.

 

Although I don’t know the exact answer, it does seem like purgeable files might have something to do with it. I do not have the technical background to know if Photoshop, Finder, or Disk Utility are right or wrong. And there is actually a possibility that we normal users can’t ever know exactly which amount is the right one, because the way macOS APFS reports free space today is extremely confusing for us regular users. A couple of articles by the excellent Howard Oakley help explain:

 

The Finder confuses with wildly inaccurate figures for available space

 

Where does macOS get its volume free space figures from?

 

Based on the end of the first article, on thing you can try to get more space free right now is to go into Disk Utility, select the boot volume, and if there are any local snapshots listed for that volume, delete them and see if Photoshop thinks there is more space after that. It’s best to delete them only after making sure your backups are up to date, because if they are, you shouldn‘t need the local snapshots any more.

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LEGEND ,
May 12, 2023 May 12, 2023

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Also see:

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

Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management/pluralsight"

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Community Beginner ,
May 12, 2023 May 12, 2023

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Thank you for posting, I have tried all of those points unfortunatly. I have a feeling it is something to do with photoshop not recognising purgeable space on Mac OS.

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