scratch disk problem

Report · Apr 17, 2023

Hello,

so I'm very frusturated with the user experience of adobe photoshop mainly because of the very slow flow of work that it gives me.

this mainly has to do with "scratch disk full- unable to perform or save" that appears every now and then.

I am a photographer and I depend on photoshop mainly, but with the fact that when i edit just 2 raw pictures I can't save the third! amd i have to restart to be able to work all over again, which wastes my time and only makes me disappointed.

Photoshop version: 24.3

decive: macbook pro 128 gb

MacOS version 13.0.1

The thing is my laptop is always empty, I use a hard disk to save my files to have some space to work.. I even have to uninstall some/ or all other apps to be able to work and yest I still get the same problem!!!!!

How does the software use 15 gb for instance in 10 minutes to edit 3 pictures and when i restart I find them back, again having to give up on the edits because scratch disks are full before I save....

Report · Apr 17, 2023

Show a screenshot of Photoshop Preferences > Scratch Disks,

The scratch file contains all history states for all open documents. It will be many times bigger than nominal starting file sizes. You normally need somewhere between 50 - 500 GB for efficient operation.

Report · Apr 19, 2023

My laptop is 128 gb overall and has literallly nothing expect creative cloud, photoshop, premiere and media encoder

Report · Apr 19, 2023

Hey buddy

10GB is quite low
Your computer might be using the memory for other operations

what you can do is buy an external hard drive and use it as scratch disk, this should solve the issue

Report · Apr 20, 2023

I already use external hard drives to save my folders,, how can i use it for scratch disks?

Report · Apr 20, 2023

Hi @mennahmed first - your internal HD is only 128 GB which is the lowest size available. You are pretty limited with what you can do with that small of a drive. Move all documents/files to your external drives leaving your main HD as clean as possible for only OS and Applications.

Next, go to Apple System Preferences/Security and Privacy/Full Disk Access and making sure PS is listed and active

Then regarding your externals:

First- external drives need to be formatted as Mac OS - Journaled. If they are formatted Ex-Fat (Windows) then they wont work.

Second - If you want to try and use them for scratch disks, your drives need to be SSD and thunderbolt 4 or USB-C connected. If they are older and using USB-A connections they wont work.

Last - make sure you have at least 100 GB free space minimum. When it comes to scratch disk space - the more the better.

After you have proper formatted drives, with fast connection, and enough space make sure they are mounted then go to Photoshop Settings/Scratch Disk and add your external drive and reorder to make this the main Disk. Then uncheck your local HD.

Your drive will need to remain connected and will need to be mounted each time prior to launching PS otherwise it will revert to your main HD.

Report · Apr 20, 2023

When connected go to

Edit > Preferences > Scratch Disks
and then check the external drive

after that press Ok and then close and reopen Photoshop

Report · Apr 20, 2023

@Ajajeh its not that simple with Mac. The drives have to be formatted properly for Mac OS and also have high-speed/no lag connections.

Report · Apr 19, 2023

The message is real. Your scratch disk is full, and you need to clear out more space.

Yes, 10 GB is nothing. Your whole computer may freeze up at any moment, and then you have bigger problems than Photoshop. I can fill up 10 GB in less than a minute.

Report · Apr 20, 2023

Hi @mennahmed the other thing to note - anything under 12GB on a Mac HD can start to cause issues with the OS operating or even starting up. Photoshop aside, you really need to free up as much space on that HD as possible ASAP before you are bricked.

Report · Aug 29, 2023

Hey, @mennahmed!

Agreed to all recommendations by @Kevin Stohlmeyer, @D Fosse & @Ajajeh. Also, check the content here explaining what scratch disk is in Photoshop & some common ways you can avoid running into errors with Photoshop: https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/troubleshoot-scratch-disk-is-full.html

Head on here for a short YouTube video around this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3c_CHo4xg0

Thanks!

Sameer K

Report · Dec 17, 2023

WELL I HAVE 400GB free space on my internal HD on my imac and I've just started getting this error

scratch disk problem

1 Correct answer

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